Plato's Theory of Forms

Cup Show: What makes it a cup?
 Because you can drink out of them, doesn’t mean it’s a cup
 We’ve been taught they are cups
 Plato’s magic show  things that seem to change back and forth and become something else.

Plato’s Theory of Forms
 This explains reality and knowledge; he wants to know, ‘how do we know what we know?’
 Most of the time we know what we know, but most of the time we don’t know HOW we know they are cups.
 So… What makes a cup a cup?
 What was Plato reacting to? He reacts against 2 philosophers:
1. Protagoras said “Man is the measure of all things”
 No capital T Truth because individuals determine reality, knowledge
 We are talking about little t truth with Protagoras; it’s only a matter of opinion or preference
 There is no matter of fact
 Knowledge according to Protagoras is subjective (ultimately dependent upon individual experience and perception) - No capital T Truth  Plato did not like this
2. Heraclitus said “You cannot step into the same river twice”
 Reality is always changing (it is always in flux)
 This also means that in knowledge is subjective and even more so that knowledge is ultimately unreliable for Heraclitus – there is no such thing as certainty
3. Both of these men were very extreme & Plato rejected both of these theories
 Plato has 3 metaphysical objectives (Metaphysical=Study of things immaterial & Objective=goals)  3 things P wanted his theory to do…Reality should be:
1. Objective – Reality exists outside of our minds
2. Independent – Not dependent on anything else for its existence
3. Absolute – Meaning unchanging
 All these 3 things/characteristics describe God, BUT PLATO IS NOT TALKING ABOUT GOD!! But, very similar to western religion.
 According to Plato, knowledge should be certain, reliable, universal (available to everybody – Capital T Truth)s
 Plato divides reality into 2 categories (Plato calls them 2 worlds):
1. The World of Becoming – This is populated with material (physical) objects which we will refer to as “Particulars” (ex: cup, people, birds, bees, etc.); Also, they are spatio-temporal meaning they are temporary or limited by time and space as all physical objects are; They are changing or more importantly, they are changeable
2. The World of Being – immaterial, non-physical “Forms” rather than “Particulars”; They are eternal meaning timeless; They are not limited by time and space; They are unchanging meaning they are absolute

 For Plato, we are completely dependent upon the Forms for our knowledge – ex: if the ‘cupness Form’ didn’t come down and immanate the cup, we wouldn’t know what it was
 Knowledge and certainty are not from 5 senses  We knew what the cup was because the Form of cupness emanated
 Why do the Forms do what they do? Why does cupness only go to cups?  Plato suggests The Form of the Good

February 23, 2011
 The Forms always “behave themselves” – meaning cupness doesn’t get into or emanate into rattlesnakes, and we may say “that’s a good thing”….but Why do the forms “behave themselves”?
 The Forms are (=) impersonal…they have no mind. Think of it like an impersonal force like Gravity.
 ANSWER  Plato says the Forms “behave themselves” because of The Form of the Good.
 The Form of the Good = that form above all other forms which makes them “behave themselves”.
 The Form of the Good is impersonal also and yet it governs all other forms.
 Why is it called The Form of the Good? Because “That’s a good thing” – It’s a good thing we know a cup from a rattlesnake.
 This is as close as Plato gets to “God”
 Now, the Question is: How do you ‘see’ an immaterial form with the material eye?
1. The physical eye sees physical Particulars
2. We need something immaterial to see something immaterial
3. Plato suggests the immaterial soul is seeing the immaterial form  Your non-physical or (immaterial) soul sees non-physical (immaterial) forms
4. ANSWER: According to Plato, the soul is eternal in the strictness sense of the word meaning no beginning (no one made it) and no end
 Plato says the soul always recognizes the forms, and the soul never makes a mistake…HOW?
1. Plato’s answer to How?  The soul has seen the Forms before in a previous life  NOT reincarnation because in transmigration of the soul…
1. There are no specific memories from previous lives, only knowledge of the Forms
2. The human soul (Form) can only emanate into human bodies (Particular)
3. What you emanate into has nothing to do with virtue
2. Its transmigration of the soul from one body to the next; The only thing the soul remembers are the Forms
3. When soul recognizes, it re-cognizing (recollecting it from memory) or re-collecting
 Plato thought Beauty to be a Form; Beauty = symmetry

Allegory of the Cave & Analogy of the Sun


1. All people are born shackled (prisoners) – He can only look straight ahead to wall in front of him where there are shadows
a. What about the philosopher? Isn’t he shackled?  Believes there are few people who can ask themselves questions and free themselves and Socrates was one of these
2. The prisoner thinks the shadow is the real thing because that’s all he has ever seen.
3. Philosopher (the hero) shows up; through questioning makes the prisoner free to stand up
4. Prisoner sees the rest of the cave, the fire(unnatural & artificial light), and prisoner realizes he was wrong about the shadows
a. Shadows are your prejudices and based on your upbringings, religious beliefs. If you believed something growing up, those are your shadows.
b. Plato doesn’t know who the guy is holding the cup. Who could it be?
i. Society/media
ii. Government
iii. Parents
iv. Teachers
v. Illuminati
vi. Peers/Colleague
vii. Church
5. Prisoner concludes that the Particular object (the cup) is the most real thing
6. Led up to world of light (sunshine) by more questioning & Prisoner now stands out of the cave
7. Sunlight (capital T Truth) hurts his eyes and Plato says at this point the prisoner has 2 choices:
a. Go back in the cave where its comfortable and familiar  most people choose to do this because the Truth is too much for them even though they know there are shadows.
b. Stay and allow their eyes to get used to sunlight & prisoner realizes the existence of ‘cupness’

The Sun is The Form of the Good; FG is like the sun for 2 reasons:
1. The sun makes all life possible
2. It is by the sun that we see all things