Explain Plato’s Theory of the Forms

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Explain Plato’s Theory of the Forms Plato observed that in the world we live in which he called, the realm of appearances’ was forever changing, no ‘thing’ in this realm remained eternal. Solid, static objects that we see with our senses are always changing even though we may not be able see these changes immediately; they are growing, decaying, becoming scratched, fading in sunlight or getting darker by the sun. This meant for Plato that all the things we see around us in this ‘material world ‘are always in the state of change therefore meaning that we can never attain true, objective knowledge from using a posteriori in this realm. Plato suggested that this world, ‘the realm of appearances’ was not the ‘real world’ but the real world is a world of concepts and ideas which he called forms which contain true complete knowledge because a form is unchanging as it is a concept. The form is everlasting therefore meaning it is in a different reality. So to Plato we gain true objective knowledge through a priori because our senses disguising the truth. To Plato the realm of the forms is more important than the realm of appearances because the forms have an unchanging nature which makes them in many ways more real. The things we see in our world are only shadows of the forms, meaning we don’t see the whole object/truth but only an outline. An example of this is the concept of beauty. Calling something beautiful can be applied to many different things. A bird or a person can be defined as a thing of beauty however they are not the true definition of what true beauty is as a concept but a phenomena just like a landscape or painting. Plato says objects in this world are only an imitation of a form therefore the Forms are beyond human comprehension because we only see a bit of the truth. Plato believed we have an understanding/ a dim recollection of what Forms are
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