Explain Plato's Theory of the Forms

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Explain, with examples, Plato’s theory of the Forms Plato’s theory of the form is based on the idea that there is another world that contains universals such as ‘Good’. He believed our innate knowledge of forms such as ‘Justice’ comes from within our souls and show themselves in our physical world as particulars. We can also identify Forms in everyday objects such as similarity and equality. In this essay I will explain his ideas in more detail: When Plato refers to a Form, he doesn’t mean the word ‘Form’ in the sense of an outline e.g. a mannequin. He means ‘Form’ in the sense of an idea which ground the identity of a particular. Forms are perfect, unchanging abstract ideas such as ‘Justice’ (this is called a universal, because, universally, everybody has a similar concept of what ‘Justice’ is). The reason that this concept is similar and not the same to everyone is because we only have known and understood imitations of these forms in the world that we live in, these are called particulars. A particular is an action which you can identity as one of the Forms. For example helping an old lady cross the road, is an example of an imitation of the Form ‘Good’. Another example is a man goes to jail for 25 years because he killed someone, this is the Form known as ‘Justice’. Plato believe that Forms exist separate from us. He argued that we all have a concept of ‘good’ and asked us to question how we know what ‘good’ really is. The answer is usually ‘I just know it’s good’…. this is why he argued that if we all know of it then it has to exist, and if we can’t see it in the physical world then it must exist somewhere else. To Plato this ‘place’ was ‘The World of the Forms’. This idea, in his theory of the Forms, is called dualism, because he believed there was two worlds. The world we exist in is called ‘The Finite World of Our Existence’ and the other ‘The World
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