Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Plato's Distinction Between Forms and Reality

Forms relates to Plato’s theory that familiar words of objects surround us, and which we apprehend by our senses, is not independent and self sufficient. The real world is dependent on another world, the idea of perception. Objects in the world which we see such as a chair for example, are constructed in a similar fashion where everyone can agree upon. However, what we perceive might not be necessarily real. The chair in a physical world is an imperfect copy of the ideal chair in the world of forms. The chair therefore, can be an example of a concept, not a so called touchable, physical object. Each form is a name of category where objects (physical) can be classified, and Plato emphasizes the point that reality lies in the universe instead of philosophy.

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