The Theory of Forms

The Theory of Forms

Plato

Biography

The purpose of my analysis paper is to evaluate and examine Plato’s meaningful existence. Let’s start with his origins. The date of birth is undetermined for sources show his birth could have been in the years 423-428 BC in Athens, Greece. He is a well-known philosopher in Classical Greece and also the founder of the Academy in Athens; the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is considered as one of the most vital figure in the advancement of philosophy. Remarkably his work has survived 2,400 years. One of his oldest manuscripts dates back to 895 AD which is 1,100 years after his death.

Philosophy

He has a lot of philosophies. The most common is the Theory of Forms. The Theory of Forms states that there are 2 two realms of existence; Material realm and Transcendent realm. A form could be an abstract property or quality. These realms have different principles. The Material realm is fixed and unable to change while the Transcendent realm is free from this restriction. This theory was meant to answer 2 problems; “How can human beings live happily if they live in a world that is always changing?” and “How can the world appear to be both permanent and changing?”. A form that you perceive or think about that could not exist in space and time thus it can be called Transcendent. Take a ball for an example, it is round and roundness can be called as form. Roundness is not meant to be for a ball only, but anything that is round. This means roundness is transcendent because it can be subjected to anything. Forms are also pure. This means properties separated are pure from all other properties. A material object, such as a basketball, has many properties: roundness, ballness, orangeness, elasticity, etc. These are all put together to make up this individual basketball. A form is just one of these properties. In virtue of the fact that all objects in this world are copies of the forms, this pure forms causes things to exist in the world. Forms are also systematically interconnected. They are connected to each other and to material objects in an intricate system that reflects both the way they flow from the form of the good and the process that we must go through in working our way up to knowledge of the forms.

Analysis

The theory imposes that form is an essence of something, a transcendent entity that is perfect, immutable, indivisible. The things of our everyday world are imperfect copies of the forms; they are multiple, but the forms themselves are one. Plato believed that Forms exist as essences in a transcendental, or ‘superlunar’ world. They are apprehensible rather than sensible, and constitute the objects of our knowledge. The main problem of this theory is that how can a form intertwine with its imperfect copy? It’s very hard to analyze how a particular could be incarnated with the form. Take for example the Form cat, how could it be infused in each individual cat while remaining indivisible and one?

Conclusion

I conclude that even though Plato thought of it very clearly, the theory still had loop holes. I understand the idea on how things came from a certain entity that would exhibit a certain likeness but if that was the case all things would always look alike. The original or transcendent form would always have a replica, one after another in a never ending cycle. Come to think of it if the Form would always be one and indivisible, anything that would come from its likeness would be itself making it divisible and a replica. Immersion of species, entities, object, etc. would be void if Forms were true. Take us humans as examples, if a form is used to make us we would end up looking like each other. Thus making this theory rejected through the eyes of his fellow philosophers.