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Plato's Socrates held that the world of Forms is transcendent to our own world (the world of substances) and also is the essential basis of reality. Super-ordinate to matter, Forms are the most pure of all things. Furthermore, he believed that true knowledge/intelligence is the ability to grasp the world of Forms with one's mind. [14]
Plato explains that the world soul is a mixture of the same and the different, woven together to form a unified, harmonious entity. [9] This soul permeates the entire cosmos, animating it and endowing it with life and intelligence.
Plato's most self-critical dialogue is the Parmenides, which features Parmenides and his student Zeno, which criticizes Plato's own metaphysical theories. Plato's Sophist dialogue includes an Eleatic stranger. These ideas about change and permanence, or becoming and Being, influenced Plato in formulating his theory of Forms. [54]
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.
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.
In Plato's Allegory of the Cave, we are like prisoners chained in a cave who see only the shadows cast by the Forms and think the shadows, rather than the hidden Forms, are real. Painting of Plato's cave by Michiel Coxie, circa 1540. Plato's Theory of Forms asserts that the world which appears to our senses derives from the perfect, unchanging ...
This is a reference to Plato's belief that all particular things are only shadows of eternal Forms. Only the philosopher, therefore, is qualified to rule, as only the philosopher has knowledge of the absolute truth and is able to apply this knowledge for the good of the state.
In Plato's Republic, the character of Socrates is highly critical of democracy and instead proposes, as an ideal political state, a hierarchal system of three classes: philosopher-kings or guardians who make the decisions, soldiers or "auxiliaries" who protect the society, and producers who create goods and do other work. [1]