Explain the Concept of Ideals in Plato’s Writings
Explain the concept of Ideals in Plato’s writings
“The unexamined life is not worth living” according to Plato. He argued that we should always pursue knowledge and ask questions to do this. A key part of Plato’s philosophy is epistemology – his theory of how we know things. His concept of Ideals, also known as Forms, is Plato’s explanation of how true knowledge can be sought.
Plato understood that there are concepts that we can all recognise in various things, for example the concept of beauty. We all recognise beauty in art, nature, people, or music, and we all understand the idea when we hear the word used. Although we can all recognise beauty, our opinions of what classes as beautiful are widely varied and subjective. The conclusions Plato drew from this is that beauty must exist, otherwise we would not know it at all. This is the Perfect Form of Beauty. However, we must have only partial knowledge of it or we would not have subjective opinions.
Forms are absolute versions of concepts and ideas. They are perfect ideas of everything and therefore they do not change – perfect things cannot change for the better and would not change for the worse. They are also eternal as to begin or to stop existing is a change. They cannot live in this world as it is constantly changing and forms are unchangeable, so they can only exist in the Realm of the Forms. The form of Beauty is absolute and true; it is not an opinion but an idea or concept, therefore no-one can know the real meaning of Beauty as it cannot exist in this world and it is eternal. We will never know forms fully as we are imperfect.
Forms give us knowledge and allow us to have some understanding of the truth. Although, we know that we do not know them fully as we can form our own opinions on things, e.g. what is beautiful and what is not. Forms are in the Realm of the Forms, we can recognise them as this is where our soul originates from, however because they come from there and not from
“The unexamined life is not worth living” according to Plato. He argued that we should always pursue knowledge and ask questions to do this. A key part of Plato’s philosophy is epistemology – his theory of how we know things. His concept of Ideals, also known as Forms, is Plato’s explanation of how true knowledge can be sought.
Plato understood that there are concepts that we can all recognise in various things, for example the concept of beauty. We all recognise beauty in art, nature, people, or music, and we all understand the idea when we hear the word used. Although we can all recognise beauty, our opinions of what classes as beautiful are widely varied and subjective. The conclusions Plato drew from this is that beauty must exist, otherwise we would not know it at all. This is the Perfect Form of Beauty. However, we must have only partial knowledge of it or we would not have subjective opinions.
Forms are absolute versions of concepts and ideas. They are perfect ideas of everything and therefore they do not change – perfect things cannot change for the better and would not change for the worse. They are also eternal as to begin or to stop existing is a change. They cannot live in this world as it is constantly changing and forms are unchangeable, so they can only exist in the Realm of the Forms. The form of Beauty is absolute and true; it is not an opinion but an idea or concept, therefore no-one can know the real meaning of Beauty as it cannot exist in this world and it is eternal. We will never know forms fully as we are imperfect.
Forms give us knowledge and allow us to have some understanding of the truth. Although, we know that we do not know them fully as we can form our own opinions on things, e.g. what is beautiful and what is not. Forms are in the Realm of the Forms, we can recognise them as this is where our soul originates from, however because they come from there and not from