Plato
& the Forms
|
Topic |
Teaching |
Quotes & Notes |
|
The Analogy of the Cave |
§
Below: The physical world: "concrete" §
Images
(e.g., visual appearances) that we see are like mere shadows, mere images of
physical things. §
Physical things
themselves are just imitations of the Forms or Ideals which are the Real things; like puppets are imitations of various
people and animals. (Individual
people are human in virtue of their
approximation to the Human Type, their imitation of the human form; etc.) §
The physical
sun lights the physical world and make it visible, like the fire lights the . §
Above: The Ideal World: "abstract" §
The Various
Forms or Intellectual Objects: e.g., the Man; the Cat; etc. §
The Good:
the source of intellectual illumination and of the very being and reality of all the other Forms. |
§
"The
prison dwelling corresponds to the region revealed to us through the sense of
sight, and the fire-light within it to the power of the Sun. The upward journey you may take as standing
for the upward journey of the soul into the region of the intelligible. . . .
In the world of knowledge the last thing to be perceived is the
essential §
"And so
with the objects of knowledge: these derive from the Good not only their
power of being known, but their very being and reality." |
|
Summary |
§
The Forms
Themselves: Eternal §
Ideal
Abstract Individuals or Universals §
that are the
Real Essences of physical things §
The Good is
the source and sustenance of the various Ideals §
physical
things: temporary §
concrete
particulars §
"participate
in" or "resemble" or "imitate" the Forms §
Epistemology:
degrees of intelligence §
imagination:
only apprehends images -- mere appearances of physical things §
belief: grasps
at the ever-changing procession of "real" physical phenomena. §
understanding:
reasons hypothetically, as in geometry. §
reason:
intellectual apprehension of the Forms themselves. |
|
|
ASSESSMENT |
§
What's Hot:
Universals §
Construed as
properties that general words -- "man", "good", etc. --
express, makes headway with problems of the possibilities of communication
& knowledge. §
Near
solution to problem of change. §
What's Not §
Characterization
of Intellectual Insight with Recollection & Associated Mystical Claptrap §
Denigration
of the reality of the physical: the contrariety argument won't hunt. §
What's
Problematic §
the
"bottomless pit of nonsense" or "ontological slum" worry:
there's an embarrassment of forms §
all the
various shades of colors §
forms of
mud, dirt, etc. §
blech1,
blech2, . . . ? §
Real
essentiality: not all forms seem created equal in this: the Touchdown v. the
Tiger. §
Prototypes
v. Universals §
Independence
of the Existence of the Forms §
Participation
- Resemblance - Imitation §
How can
Forms resemble physical things? §
The
"third man" argument. |
BERTRAND RUSSELL'S COMMENTS §
T]he problem
of universals, in various forms, has persisted to the present day. . . .
The absolute minimum that remains, even in the view of those most
hostile to Plato, is this: that we cannot express ourselves [without] general
words such as "man," "dog," "cat,"; or, if not
these, then relational words such as "similar," "before,"
and so on. Such words are not
meaningless noises, and it is difficult to see how they can have meaning if
the world consists entirely of particular things, such as are designated by
proper names. (126-7) §
If
appearance really appears, it is not nothing, and is therefore part of
reality. (129) §
When an
individual partakes of an idea, the individual and the idea are similar;
therefore there will have to be another idea, embracing both the particulars
and the original idea. And there will
have to be yet another, embracing the particulars and the two ideas, and so
on ad infinitum. (128) |
