Jimmy Morris
Plato was a student of the philosopher Socrates. Although Plato was not the favorite of Socrates, he quietly sat and recorded Socrates’ words and ideas. Thus, when Socrates was executed for claimed “corruption of the youth” and “impiousness,” Plato continued where Socrates left off. Plato believed that we can actually get answers to the questions “what is virtue?” and what is justice?” So Plato came up with a very complex yet surprisingly digestible Theory of the Forms. Plato believed that it is possible to find a true being of virtue or just, that is, you can find its form. Plato believed that all things have a true being. According to Plato, the world we live in is an imperfect replica of the real world. Our world, the material word, is constantly undergoing change and we rely on our senses to understand what is going on. We see cats and dogs die, chairs fall apart, and fruit rot. Even human beings are in a constant state of change. For example, a person is not the same person he or she was five years ago, five months ago, or even five …show more content…
Imagine there are three different types of pears. Each pear is in a different state of decay. What do these pears have in common that makes them distinctly pears instead of, for instance, plumbs? There is an underlying sense of pear-ness to them that makes each of these things distinctly pear. What we may call “pear-ness” is what Plato calls the true form or essence of pears. There is only one former essence of pears and this one form is what forms the many that is seen on earth. Also the form of the pear is unchanging and eternal whereas the pears themselves are simply appearances of the true form of pears. There is ultimately no such thing as a perfect pear in the material world, they are all just imperfect reflections of the form of pears. As human beings, we can recognize the forms because we were born with a dim recollection of them from our prior existence in the world of the
Plato was a student of the philosopher Socrates. Although Plato was not the favorite of Socrates, he quietly sat and recorded Socrates’ words and ideas. Thus, when Socrates was executed for claimed “corruption of the youth” and “impiousness,” Plato continued where Socrates left off. Plato believed that we can actually get answers to the questions “what is virtue?” and what is justice?” So Plato came up with a very complex yet surprisingly digestible Theory of the Forms. Plato believed that it is possible to find a true being of virtue or just, that is, you can find its form. Plato believed that all things have a true being. According to Plato, the world we live in is an imperfect replica of the real world. Our world, the material word, is constantly undergoing change and we rely on our senses to understand what is going on. We see cats and dogs die, chairs fall apart, and fruit rot. Even human beings are in a constant state of change. For example, a person is not the same person he or she was five years ago, five months ago, or even five …show more content…
Imagine there are three different types of pears. Each pear is in a different state of decay. What do these pears have in common that makes them distinctly pears instead of, for instance, plumbs? There is an underlying sense of pear-ness to them that makes each of these things distinctly pear. What we may call “pear-ness” is what Plato calls the true form or essence of pears. There is only one former essence of pears and this one form is what forms the many that is seen on earth. Also the form of the pear is unchanging and eternal whereas the pears themselves are simply appearances of the true form of pears. There is ultimately no such thing as a perfect pear in the material world, they are all just imperfect reflections of the form of pears. As human beings, we can recognize the forms because we were born with a dim recollection of them from our prior existence in the world of the