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In philosophy and specifically metaphysics, the theory of Forms, theory of Ideas, [1] [2] [3] Platonic idealism, or Platonic realism is a theory widely credited to the Classical Greek philosopher Plato. The theory suggests that the physical world is not as real or true as "Forms".
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 ...
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.
Many Platonic notions were adopted by the Christian church which understood Plato's Forms as God's thoughts (a position also known as divine conceptualism), while Neoplatonism became a major influence on Christian mysticism in the West through Saint Augustine, Doctor of the Catholic Church, who was heavily influenced by Plotinus' Enneads, [3 ...
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 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: The Platonic theory of ideas has two aspects which lead to allegorical interpretations of both signs and things ...
Difficulties arise in the connection of the four classes of beings introduced by Plato's Socrates with the Platonic theory of forms. It is disputed whether the classes – or at least some of them – are to be understood as forms. In particular, the assumption that even the Unlimited is a form is problematic and controversial.
Platonic love, a relationship that is not sexual in nature; Platonic forms, or the theory of forms, Plato's model of existence; Platonic idealism; Platonic solid, any of the five convex regular polyhedra; Platonic crystal, a periodic structure designed to guide wave energy through thin plates; Platonism, the philosophy of Plato (Classical period)