Explain Plato’s theory of forms…is it of little use in understanding the physical world
...re and true form that is possible. It is often described as the big hypothesis, the reason for everything. In the analogy of the cave this is portrayed as the sun, because it is the reason that the people passing the cave, the people in the cave and even the fire that cast the shadow are there. Without the sun the people can’t live and the fire wouldn’t be able to burn, in the same way that without the form of the good we would not exist. This theory basically is telling us that we don’t actually know anything and that to be able to know things we must ignore all of our sense experience and search for truth a-priori. It also tells us that we cannot change or invent things despite what our sensory perception tells us. However it doesn’t say that we cannot strive for truth, Plato wanted the rulers of the world to be philosophers as he believed that knowledge of the search for truth is the most important thing possible. Is Plato’s theory of forms of use in understanding the physical world? This question is a hard one to answer as it varies from person to person. It is asking if the theory of forms is a help to the understanding of the way the world works, but of course there are many answers to this as it may be a help to some and a hindrance to others. It may be seen as useless due to the fact that it is a concept that cannot be perceived. To imagine the world of forms is impossible as we can only imagine things that are based on our sensory experience. It is like trying to think of a new colour, you can never find a new one but at the same time we can’t say that there isn’t a new colour as it cannot be disproved, the only conclusion that is possible to come to from doing this is that the process generates a very bad headache. The same is true of the world of forms. We cannot perceive it as it a-priori, this means that it can neither be proved nor disproved. This renders it useless. I could say that our entire universe is actually part of a toenail possessed by a great holy sloth that hangs from gods favourite tree, but in the same way it cannot be proved wrong or right therefore it is useless. Therefore because we cannot picture the world of forms, and we don’t even know if it exists, it is no help at all to our understanding of our world Many people, including Aristotle would say that you can only make sense of the world a-posteri, after sense experience, as this is the only thing that makes sense to us. Another reason that it may be seen as useless is the question of where these worlds actually came from and why. Plato said that for something to be true it must have three qualities, belief that it is so, it being so and the logos (reason). In his literature Plato writes a dialogue between Timaeus and Socrates in which Timaeus says, “was the world, I say, always in existence and without beginning? Or created and with beginning? Created, I replied, being visible and tangible and having a body, and therefore sensible; and all sensible things which are apprehended by opinion and sense are in a process of creation and created.” This creator must exist due to the facts, that it is believed, we know that it is true due to the world being evidence and it has a reason to exist as a creator is needed for something to be created. However, the problem occurs with the fact that truth is timeless and so the world of forms precedes the world of appearances. The world of forms’ logos is the fact that it is true, however what’s the logos for the creator to then create a world of appearances? With no logos to which it is created this leads us to two conclusions, the first is that the world of appearances doesn’t actually exist, the second is that it is actually truth. However according to Plato neither of these cases is true. This is a major contradiction on Plato’s behalf which really doesn’t help us at all when it comes to making sense of the world at all as it is either telling us that the world doesn’t exist or that what we perceive is actually true, however what we perceive is actually changing and so due to the fact that the whole reason for the theory is that truth cannot change this leads us to believe that the physical world in which we live doesn’t actually exist. This is definitely no use to our understanding as physical world must exist because that is where we are. In conclusion to this, Plato’s theory of forms really doesn’t help us make sense of the physical world because first of all we cannot perceive it and secondly it tells us that we don’t exist. However, some say that Plato’s theory of forms, explained by the analogy of the cave is very much a microcosm of reality. They would argue that it does help us to make sense of the physical world. It starts by explaining the reason why things change. Just as the shadows that are cast on the cave change due to the fire casting them from the true objects, does it not make sense that we and the things that move and change around us are in same way merely visions of the true form. People do argue that different images can’t exist from the same form. However if you think of a football player stood still during a nigh time match, the floodlights cast lots of different shadows from him. Are these shadows all from an unmoving object? Yes. and are they all different? Yes. They show emphasis on ...