Plato's realm of the forms ♡

Plato being crazy for 25 flash cards.

Who was Plato?

Plato was a realist. Plato rejected the idea that the world could be understood from sense experience and sought knowledge on a deepee level.

What is realism?

Realism is the belief that there is a world of existence beyond what we can perceive with our senses. The truth is not in what we see, but what we understand.

Plato was an idealist. What does that mean?

Plato believed that, because things in the physical world can change and die, the idea or essence of these things must exist elsewhere. Plato concludes from this that there must be a realm beyond our world, where ideas live without a physical form. (the idea of a sweater exists without the actual sweater).

briefly summarise the allegory of the cave

prisoners = unenlightened people

sun = the form of the good/ enlightenment

chains = restrictions placed on us by society

shadows= the phenomena in the realm of appearances

ascent = the journey to gaining deeper understanding of the world

the cave, the walls and the shadows

falsehoods of the world

chains

ignorance and lack of thinking

the unchaining

the process of gaining knowledge

the ascent

the challenges of facing reality/ seeking enlightenment

the sun

the form of the good

the prisoners rejection of the returning man

those who are blissfully ignorant and will reject the truth

what can Plato’s cave be applied to?

politics, religion and philosophy, society as a whole. Plato applied this to his idea of the journey from the “lower” realm to the “upper” realm

Critique: Martin Heidegger

Plato’s cave illustrates how humans are trapped in a limited understanding of reality. they must break free using with experiential knowledge, rather than the idealistic thinking Plato believed in.

Counter: Hannah Ardent

Ardent thinks Heidegger missed the political dimension in Plato’s allegory, suggesting it illustrates the philosopher’s struggle to engage with politics whilst also seeking higher truths, advocated for the political approach to the cave.

Martin Hollis quote

“We are surely in touch with things as often as with shadows and we know the difference”.

what is the realm of the forms?

a perfect world, not physical and not connected to ours. it contains concepts and blueprints (both perfect) for phenomena in the world, which are mere imitations of concepts and blueprints. in a sentence:

True knowledge is not found in this world since it is prone to change and decay. Therefore, true knowledge must be beyond this physical world and is found in TROTF, which is only accessible through the use of reason.

realm of appearances

the world we are a part of and can perceive with our senses. contains phenomena.

what are blueprints and concepts?

perfect ideas that exist in the realm of the forms.

what are phenomena?

mere imitations of concepts and blueprints which exist in the realm of the forms. we come into contact with these every day in the realm of appearances.

can you summarise Plato’s argument for me?

Plato's argument:  

P1: this world is imperfect  

P2: but there is evidence of perfect concepts 

P3: the perfect concepts must exist somewhere 

Conclusion: there must be a perfect realm for perfect concepts. this is where the form of the good, beauty, justice, concepts and blueprints exist

what is a form?

what we get when we separate a property from an object.

where do we get knowledge of the forms?

Plato believes that in each person, there is an innate idea of the forms e.g. beauty, justice, blueness, dogness, blueness etc.

why can’t our world be our source of true knowledge?

our senses can deceive us

how do we have any knowledge of the realm of the forms?

we have anamnesis, which is memory of the perfect forms, because our souls used to reside in the realm of the forms. when we die, we return back to the realm of the forms, but when we pass back into the realm of appearances and are reincarnated we go through anamnesis and forget most of this knowledge: the knowledge we retain informs of us the forms.

what is the hierarchy of the realm of the forms?

form of the good (top dog) → form of justice→ form of beauty → form of equals → abstract ideas (the concepts) → phenomena (exist in the realm of appearances)

what actually is the form of the good?

Plato compares it to the sun- it allows us to see things. it gives truth to things and gives us the power to know things, like difficult concepts such as justice. good gives life to all other forms. once you understand the good, you will understand what true knowledge is. realists/ rationalists argue that we have some innate idea of beauty, justice etc, and this comes from the ROTF.

Bertrand Russel’s critique

When we take Plato’s argument to the extreme it results in a “Bottomless pit of nonsense” - is there a perfect form of disease, violence etc?

Dawkins’ critique

It is useless to discuss a non-physical world- Plato has no proof for his realm of the forms: one can think of something but this does not make it real.

Ayer’s critique

Plato’s theory is based on ‘primitive superstition’ which suggests that a world beyond the physical exists- modern science rejects this idea

The Third Man/ Aristotle and Plato

there must be a form of every form which exists, which leads to infinite regress. scholars such as Aristotle disagreed with this (hence the creation of the Prime Mover).

Positives (use Plato for all of these)

• our senses can be deceptive, Plato encourages us to explore beyond them

• Plato’s Analogy of the Cave can be applied politically, religiously and individually (use Arendt here).

• Analogy of the Cave allows us to examine our assumptions and firmly held social beliefs that may not truly serve us.