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Near the end of the Phaedo, for example, Plato describes the world of Forms as a pristine region of the physical universe located above the surface of the Earth (Phd. 109a–111c). In the Phaedrus the Forms are in a " place beyond heaven " ( hyperouranios topos ) ( Phdr. 247c ff); and in the Republic the sensible world is contrasted with the ...
Within Plato's hierarchy of Forms, the many lower-level Forms of the species derive from and depend on the higher and more general Forms of each genus. This leads to the supposition that the introduction of Forms was only a step on the way from the maximum multiplicity of appearances to the greatest possible unity.
The Form of the Good, or more literally translated "the Idea of the Good" (ἡ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ἰδέα [a]), is a concept in the philosophy of Plato.In Plato's Theory of Forms, in which Forms are defined as perfect, eternal, and changeless concepts existing outside space and time, the Form of the Good is the mysterious highest Form and the source of all the other Forms.
Book VI of the Republic identifies the highest form as the Form of the Good, the cause of all other Ideas, and that on which the being and knowing of all other Forms is contingent. Conceptions derived from the impressions of sense can never give us the knowledge of true being, i.e., of the forms. [ 6 ]
In philosophy, Plato's epistemology is a theory of knowledge developed by the Greek philosopher Plato and his followers. Platonic epistemology holds that knowledge of Platonic Ideas is innate, so that learning is the development of ideas buried deep in the soul, often under the midwife-like guidance of an interrogator.
Plato's disquiet is focused on popularisers of subtle interpretation, not on the method itself ... [10] The core of Plato's philosophy is the Theory of Forms (or Ideas), and many writers have seen in this metaphysical theory a justification for the use of literary allegory. Fletcher, for example, wrote:
Plato was one of the first essentialists, postulating the concept of ideal forms—an abstract entity of which individual objects are mere facsimiles. To give an example: the ideal form of a circle is a perfect circle, something that is physically impossible to make manifest; yet the circles we draw and observe clearly have some idea in common ...
Diairesis is Plato's later method of definition based on division, developed in the Platonic dialogues Phaedrus, Sophist, Statesman, and Philebus. Further applications are found in the Laws [2] and Timaeus. It is a means of attempting to reach a definition by which a collection of candidates is repeatedly divided into two parts with one part ...