Plato's Theory of Forms - AO2 Analysis

Weaknesses:

  • Plato believed senses are inferior

    ↳ humans have relied on them for survival for thousands of years, however

  • Plato does not make it clear how the world of Forms relates to our world

  • Plato does not adequately explain what the Form of the Good is

  • Plato does not make it clear how all the forms flow from the Form of the Good

  • Proof that Plato’s ‘real’ world actually exists?

  • if you can have a Form of a Form like ‘Goodness’, what is stopping you having a form of a form of a form….. —> infinite regression

  • is there really an absolute value as Good? is it not all shades of opinon?

  • it seems unlikely that there is an ideal form of everything in existence eg slugs, cancer

  • Plato’s argument does not help when trying to make sense of the world we live in

  • Plato literally meant that the entire visible world was an illusion & the Realm of Forms was the only true we should seek

    • there is no evidence that the Realm of Forms exists, and so the entire allegory breaks down

Critical Questions:

  • Plato assumes that someone who discovered the Form of the Good i.e. the released prisoner would never want to return their old ways

    • could be argued that he underestimates the pull from emotions, desires, drives, lusts, physical pleasure, etc

    • My thoughts: he has certainly underestimated the pull of such things because take someone who knows they’re in a relationship that’s not good for them, however they remain in it because of maybe of fear of loneliness, or justification by focusing on the maybe 20% that’s positive and I think that generally, humans can often be emotionally lazy, in the way that they aren’t willing to put in the energy to be happier.

  • Aristotle identified that people suffer from a weakness of will - desires can be too strong for some people to resist

  • —> If we can doubt Plato on these points, the allegory of the cave breaks down.

Strengths:

  • explains why we all recognise the same essential elements in something

  • helps us to understand why there are imperfections in the world around us

  • encourages us to question, in order to learn, and not accept things at face value