Self-predication: the Form of Beauty is itself beautiful. But this is different from the way in which all other beautiful things are beautiful. Every other beautiful thing is beautiful because it ‘participates in’ the Form of Beauty; but the Form simply is beautiful.
It is what it is in virtue of itself. This also provides an explanation of why things that participate in Beauty are beautiful: participating in Beauty makes a particular thing beautiful because the Form is itself beautiful. Beauty is ‘transmitted’ to particular things that participate in it.
Independence from particulars: it follows from (1) that each Form is its own essence.
Because this is what a Form is, we can understand why it is that Forms (can) exist independently of whether …show more content…
The Form of Beauty cannot become not beautiful, nor can it have ever been not beautiful. If it changed, then by the new Form of Beauty, the previous Form would not have been perfectly beautiful; by the previous Form, any change would be a change away from being beautiful. As this is impossible, Forms do not change.
Simplicity: Plato repeatedly says the Forms are ‘one’. Each Form has just the one property of which it is the Form: the Form of beauty is only beautiful (and the only thing which is only beautiful). However, Plato also suggests that each Form is good, and that the Form of the Good is the Form of Forms. Furthermore, Plato attempts to give full accounts of each Form that explains what it is. For example, in The Republic, Plato argues that justice is doing one’s own job (433a). This equates justice to a particular set of properties, so it is not simple or just ‘one’.
In contrast to Forms, particulars are complex, changeable, and imperfect. These important differences suggest that the way Forms and particulars exist is different, and that the existence of the Forms is superior: they are in a way that particulars are not.
Forms exist independently, but particulars only exist through participating in the
It is what it is in virtue of itself. This also provides an explanation of why things that participate in Beauty are beautiful: participating in Beauty makes a particular thing beautiful because the Form is itself beautiful. Beauty is ‘transmitted’ to particular things that participate in it.
Independence from particulars: it follows from (1) that each Form is its own essence.
Because this is what a Form is, we can understand why it is that Forms (can) exist independently of whether …show more content…
The Form of Beauty cannot become not beautiful, nor can it have ever been not beautiful. If it changed, then by the new Form of Beauty, the previous Form would not have been perfectly beautiful; by the previous Form, any change would be a change away from being beautiful. As this is impossible, Forms do not change.
Simplicity: Plato repeatedly says the Forms are ‘one’. Each Form has just the one property of which it is the Form: the Form of beauty is only beautiful (and the only thing which is only beautiful). However, Plato also suggests that each Form is good, and that the Form of the Good is the Form of Forms. Furthermore, Plato attempts to give full accounts of each Form that explains what it is. For example, in The Republic, Plato argues that justice is doing one’s own job (433a). This equates justice to a particular set of properties, so it is not simple or just ‘one’.
In contrast to Forms, particulars are complex, changeable, and imperfect. These important differences suggest that the way Forms and particulars exist is different, and that the existence of the Forms is superior: they are in a way that particulars are not.
Forms exist independently, but particulars only exist through participating in the