The Realm of the Forms is The Realm

The Realm of the Forms is… The Realm of Appearances is… IDEAS TEMPORARY SHADOWS INNATE KNOWLEDGE IMITATIONS ETERNAL COPIES MORTAL PARTICIPATES IN THE REALM OF THE FORMS UNCHANGING PARTICULARS ARCHETYPE PERFECT ONLY ACCESSABLE TO PHILOSOPHERS CHANGING VISIBLE IMPERFECT REFLECTIONS THE TRUTH PHYSICAL IMMORTAL BEYOND HUMAN COMPREHENSION CONCEPTS Sort the concepts into the Realm of the Forms and the Realm of Appearances…

19/01/2022 A. N. Whitehead “The history of western Philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato. ” THE FORM OF THE GOOD The Good Learning Objectives: D: Know and describe what is meant by the Form of the Good. C: Explain the Form of the Good in relation to other Forms. B: Explain the strengths and weaknesses of the Forms. A: Critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of the Forms.

Try and explain the concept of Justice without referring to the concept of Good in any way. This means you can’t use a word like ‘fairness’ without implying that it relates to what is good. 19/01/2022

The Form of the Good Plato believed most things conform to a Form, but some things like numbers and evil do not. Some Forms are greater than others. Ideal Forms have something in common, which is that they all have the presence of Good in them. Plato said, the Good is the most important Form. 19/01/2022

The simile of the sun The visible world The intelligible world The sun The Form of the Good The eye The mind (reason) Sight Intelligence To see To know Light Truth Growth The being (reality) of the Forms

Activity Draw your own cartoon of the philosopher looking up to the sun surrounded by lesser earth-bound mortals. Demonstrate your understanding of Plato’s Theory of Forms by using arrows to explanations or other images if you wish. How might Plato’s concept of the Form of the Good might influence the way Christians understand God? 19/01/2022

Strengths It explains why we all recognise the same essential elements in something. This argument helps us to understand why there are imperfections in the world around us. It encourages us to question in order to learn and not to accept things at face value. 19/01/2022

THERE IS NO PROOF OF THE WORLD OF FORMS! We only have Plato’s theory and a flawed analogy to explain the Wo. F. Popper (1902 – 1994) : Believed that Plato sought permanence in the Wo. F as a way of dealing with the uncertainty of life. Plato couldn’t accept that TRUE REALITY can change – someone like Popper would ask ‘Why can’t true reality change? ’. If Popper is right then there is no need to posit the existence of another realm to find the truth. 19/01/2022

Aristotle had several criticisms of Plato, particularly the Form of the Good. He suggested that Good comes in so many varieties that there cannot be one Form of it; Goodness of a person is different from the Goodness of a shovel. A person may be a Good person but a bad shovel. In essence Aristotle was looking at purpose as the definition of whether something was good, in other words something was good in relation to something else – a good knife is one that cuts, a bad one doesn’t fulfil its purpose as something that cuts. 19/01/2022

Weaknesses Move around the room to copy down the key parts of the criticisms and weaknesses of Plato’s theory of the Forms. Stretch and Challenge Which weaknesses do you find the most and least convincing? Give reasons for your choices. 19/01/2022

Weaknesses Move to the poster of the criticism you found strongest/most convincing against Plato’s theory of the Forms. Make sure you know WHY you think this is the best weakness of Plato’s ideas. 19/01/2022

To summarise In your notes write 3 paragraphs explaining: 1) What is Plato’s the Form of Good? 2) How does Plato’s Form of Good link to the sun in his analogy of the cave? 3) What criticisms are there of Plato’s Forms? 19/01/2022