Plato's Forms

Question 1

(1. Explanation of the forms paragraph)

What are particulars and how do forms relate to them

Answer 1

• Particulars = physical objects: changing, temporary, imperfect, can never really ‘be’, exist in the physical world - can be verified by physical senses
• Forms are an explanation of particulars for having the characteristics that they have: the object of definitions

Question 2

(1. Explanation of the forms paragraph)

What are the forms

Answer 2

• The highgest level of reality & are universal

- Cannot be empirically verified as they only exist in the intelligible world

Question 3

(1. Explanation of the forms paragraph)

Example of the forms using tables

Answer 3

The table in my room is a particular but the essence of all tables is a form: ‘table-ness’ - an explanation for why the table has the characteristics it has i.e. what makes it table

Question 4

(2. Illustrations of the forms paragraph)

synopsis of the cave analogy

Answer 4

• chained prisoners seeing only shadows
• one breaks free, exposed to the upper world
• returns to tell the others what he has seen

Question 5

(2. Illustrations of the forms paragraph)

overall message of the cave summed up

Answer 5

A parable that represents his metaphysics, his epistemology and his ideas about a philosopher journeying from a state of ignorance to enlightenment

Question 6

(2. Illustrations of the forms paragraph)

Explanation / symbolism of the cave story

Answer 6

• darkness = ignorance
• childhood = greek society needing education
• shadows believed to be real = state of belief rather than knowledge
• objects in the upper world = the forms
• sun = the form of the good
• fire = our physical sun
• prisoner descending = back into ignorance to teach about the forms

Question 7

(2. Illustrations of the forms paragraph)

overview of the divided line

Answer 7

• bottom to top, tracks the journey from ignorance to truth (like the prisoner’s journey)
• The diagram is separated into two sides: Epistemology, which refers to the mind and Ontology, which refers to the world

Question 8

(2. Illustrations of the forms paragraph)

Aim of the divided line

Answer 8

Maps the hierarchy of thinking and the hierarchy of reality

Question 9

(2. Illustrations of the forms paragraph)

The epistemology side

Answer 9

• shows the levels of apprehension
• distinguishes between knowledge and belief
• the highest level of apprehension is pure thought (noesis) which one uses for thinking about the forms

Question 10

(2. Illustrations of the forms paragraph)

the ontology side

Answer 10

• presents different egress of truth about the world - from images and shadows (eikones) to pure forms (archai)
• the forms are a class of object above the intelligible world and mathematics

Question 11

(2. Illustrations of the forms paragraph)

the sun analogy: what is it used to demonstrate?

Answer 11

That the form of the good is the form of the forms

- truth is the source of knowledge and the form of the good is just truth

Question 12

(2. Illustrations of the forms paragraph)

the sun analogy: what does everything represent ?

Answer 12

• visible world = the forms
• sun = the form of the good
• eye = mind
• sight / seeing = intelligence / knowledge
• sun allows our eyes to see = the form of the good gives the knower’s mind the power of knowing
• LIGHT =TRUTH
• sun causes growth = the form of the good causes the being of the forms

Question 13

(3. Criticisms paragraph)

rejected by empiricists

Answer 13

• physical entities can be empirically verified therefore ‘common sense’ might lead us to believe that they are the most real thing - goes against common sense / expectation
• empiricists see the theory as redundant as the cannot be verified

Question 14

(3. Criticisms paragraph)

Not an accessible theory

Answer 14

accessible only to the philosophically minded / those who have access to education

Question 15

(3. Criticisms paragraph)

Bertrand Russell’s ‘bottomless pit of nonsense’

Answer 15

Russell sees the theory as this since the idea of the forms are so far removed from our experience that it would be impossible to put knowledge of the form of the good into practice

Question 16

(4. Third man paragraph)

Explain the third man argument

Answer 16

Every form will be the explanation of the property of a particular, but it will also have that property meaning it needs another form behind it in order to explain it - the reason we posit form is to explain properties like ‘table-ness’ or ‘pen-ness’ but nothing can be explained because the explanation never gets started - instead every form leads to another behind it again and again infinitely
- epistemic regress created

Question 17

(4. third man paragraph)

How did plato attempt to counter the third man argument and what is the problem with ti

Answer 17

• the form of the good is the ultimate form / higher than the others - as shown by the son analogy
• But this seems problematic: you cannot just posit an intangible final form in order to put an end to the epistemic regress