One of Plato's core philosophical beliefs

¶ … Plato's beliefs

Plato's belief in the concept of Forms

In his philosophy Plato considered true knowledge of reality to be the knowledge of the ideal Forms of things. The Forms were the creative and original background to the world of "particulars." The world of particulars refers to the instances of the Forms, which we perceive as ordinary mundane reality. Therefore Plato argued that our knowledge of reality is essentially dualistic in that there is a dichotomy between the ideal Forms and the inferior world of particulars.

This division in experience and reality has been the focus of much criticism and many modern philosophers see this dualism as being too idealistic and out of touch with the reality of our world.

This paper will therefore provide an overview of the central arguments that Plato puts forward for his concept of Forms and will also consider some opposing views to this theory in the history of philosophy. The paper will also attempt to show that the theory of Forms and particulars is a convincing and acceptable view of reality which has relevance to our contemporary world. This point-of-view will be contrasted with those thinkers who have disagreed with the basic tenets of this philosophy.

The dualistic concept of Forms and particulars that Plato espoused has had a profound and enduring impact on modern thought and philosophy. The most often quoted example of the theory of Forms is the allegory of the cave, through which Plato explains this theory of knowledge and reality.

In Book vii of the Republic, Plato compares the human condition or state of knowledge to living in a cave. In this metaphorical comparison or allegory for the sake of argument Plato places humanity in a cave with the Forms of ideal reality outside the cave. In the allegory humanity is only aware of the shadows of the true or ideal Forms that exist outside of the cave. In other words, it is the shadows of reality which are reflected on the walls of the cave that human beings take to be the truth. The shadows constitute the mundane world of ordinary reality. However, as Plato points out, what we see in the cave or the ordinary world is not reality as such but only a representation of reality. In order to see true reality and have genuine knowledge, we must encounter the Forms or ideals outside the cave.

Therefore Plato's theory divides reality into truth and illusion. Humanity exists in the world of particulars which is only a reflection of true reality. Forms refer to the concept of wholeness and perfection which enters out word but which exists outside of it.

This world of perfection is clearly expressed by Plato in the Phaedrus.

For those which we called immortal go outside when they are come to the topmost height, and stand on the outer surface of heaven, and as they stand they are borne round by its revolution, and gaze on the external scene.... But this is the fashion of it; for sure I must venture to speak the truth, especially as truth is my theme. Real existence, colourless, formless, and intangible, visible only to the intelligence which sits at the helm of the soul, and with which the family of true science is concerned, has its abode in this region.

In the above passage Plato refers to the truth as beyond our ordinary and mundane conception of reality. It is "... colourless, formless, and intangible, visible only to the intelligence which sits at the helm of the soul..."

In other words, true reality or the Forms are the ideals of unity and perfection which surpasses our meager attempts at description and understanding. The Forms are "...not such as they appear in creation, nor under the variety of forms to which we nowadays give the name of realities, but the justice, the temperance, the science, which exist in that which is real and essential being. "

The important point to consider in terms of an argument for this belief, is that on the basis of these ideals Plato constructs his vision of the perfect and "good' society.

All the aspects of society are based on the models of the Forms, or the ideals of perfection. In other words, if we translate this belief into practical terms, Plato's theory really means that we should strive for the highest possible ideals in life.

Although Plato had a great influence on Western thought, there are many thinkers and philosophers who disagree with the basic premises, and dualism, of this theory. For example, the philosopher Emmanuel Kant states that man has certain limitations in his search for truth and knowledge. Unlike Plato, Kant believed that we could not have knowledge of or 'know' the truth that exists behind ordinary reality. He referred to the word of true reality as the noumenal world. However to understand this noumenal world is to understand the "thing in itself'; a possibly that Kant believed was beyond human capabilities. Therefore, although Kant acknowledged that there was a world of perfection that was greater than the world of appearances, yet it was unattainable.

A all the "ideas" that come to us involuntarily (as those of the senses) do not enable us to know objects otherwise than as they affect us; so that what they may be in themselves remains unknown to us, and consequently that as regards "ideas" of this kind even with the closest attention and clearness that the understanding can apply to them, we can by them only attain to the knowledge of appearances, never to that of things in themselves.

Kant still acknowledges the duality of ideal and real, but another more radical philosopher, Frederick Nietzsche, disagreed totally with Plato's idealism. In effect he viewed the concept of Forms and ideals as little more than fantasy and an illusion that impeded human development. He was a materialist philosopher and possibly represents much of the modern opposition to Plato.