Comparing Plato's Forms And The Form Of The Good
Plato’s theory of the Forms is one of the most important philosophical concepts. In short, the Forms set a universal standard that particular objects in the physical world are compared to. In order to better understand the Forms and why they exist, however, one must understand more of Plato’s point of view of the world. One must also understand the Form of the Good. The Form of the Good can be relatively hard to grasp but luckily, Plato gives many analogies to help explain the differences between physical objects, the Forms, and the Form of the Good. Before going further into the Forms, knowing more about Plato’s perspective of the world is imperative. The simplest way to describe this is by saying Plato believes instead of one world, two worlds exist. Plato also believes things
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It does not make sense for the physical world (not fully real) to be the biggest section while the Forms are in the smaller section. Since the Forms are the most important, the intelligible should be the largest portion, while the visible world should be smaller. The Form of the Good should take be the largest segment, followed by lesser Forms. After the Forms are physical things (the same size as forms) and their images (the smallest segment). Even with this change, the metaphor does not make sense an imperfect representation (physical things) should not be equal to a Form.
Another of Plato’s metaphors of the Forms talks about people living in a cave. These people have always lived in this cave and they are restrained from any movement. Near the entrance of this cave is a fire, however, the people cannot see the fire since they face the opposite way. They only see the shadows created by the fire. People are walking in and out of the cave, but there is a low wall, blocking them from view of the prisoners. Many of these people carry artifacts or statues which are seen above the low wall, casting shadows from the fire. This makes a shadow puppet
It does not make sense for the physical world (not fully real) to be the biggest section while the Forms are in the smaller section. Since the Forms are the most important, the intelligible should be the largest portion, while the visible world should be smaller. The Form of the Good should take be the largest segment, followed by lesser Forms. After the Forms are physical things (the same size as forms) and their images (the smallest segment). Even with this change, the metaphor does not make sense an imperfect representation (physical things) should not be equal to a Form.
Another of Plato’s metaphors of the Forms talks about people living in a cave. These people have always lived in this cave and they are restrained from any movement. Near the entrance of this cave is a fire, however, the people cannot see the fire since they face the opposite way. They only see the shadows created by the fire. People are walking in and out of the cave, but there is a low wall, blocking them from view of the prisoners. Many of these people carry artifacts or statues which are seen above the low wall, casting shadows from the fire. This makes a shadow puppet