Understanding Plato’s Form of the Good can be very challenging. However, by understanding the hierarchy of Forms and the difference between the sensible and intelligible world we can make sense of Plato’s ideas. To start, we need to remember that Plato believed that everything we see around us is only an imitation of true objects. Before we were born our souls roamed the World of Forms. While our souls were in this world they learned about true knowledge. Everything that we know today is our soul remembering what it learned in the past.
Plato spoke of two “worlds” the sensible and the intelligible. He used the analogy of men chained up in a cave. The men chained and watching the shadows on the wall are living in the sensible world.
Plato spoke of two “worlds” the sensible and the intelligible. He used the analogy of men chained up in a cave. The men chained and watching the shadows on the wall are living in the sensible world.