A Brief Primer On The Platonic Theory Of Forms
The modern conception of philosophy is something far different from how the ancients viewed it. Whereas today people have the image of a closeted intellectual or a bearded fellow sipping brandy atop an ivory tower debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, in the past, philosophy was serious business, with serious consequences.
The problem has to do with what we think of when we hear the word philosopher. In the old days, the ancient philosophers like Aristotle and Plato would practice a discipline that was much more like the natural sciences we practice today. They would generally study not just metaphysics and ethics, but also art, biology, and much more.
In keeping with the ancient interest in the scientific and reason-based application of philosophy, many theories were proposed about the nature of the universe, how the reality we experience matches up with the true reality that exists independent of our observation, and what this meant about how we know things.
The Platonic theory of Forms is one of the first ‘big ideas’ to come from politics, and it’s useful for explaining the ordered structure of being in the universe, and in particular how our minds categorize things as being of the same type, or things different from one another. What exists within the qualities of the Tiger rice cooker that we lump it together with the food processor, but not a van?
Plato famously used the vehicle of fiction and allegory to demonstrate his points, and this is no exception. Here, he paints the image of men chained up in a cave. The world passes behind them, panthers and baby cribs and trains, and they can only see it through the shadows cast by a dim fire. If they were to turn around and see the true reality, they would be amazed, and might not even be able to handle it.
In a realm beyond the immediately physical, Plato holds to the existence of ‘Forms’, ideal representations of everything that exists in the universe. In creating a chair, we are attempting to replicate this ultimate Form, but can never totally do so, unless we pursue the philosophical path.
So, whether you’re looking to understand girls polo shirts or polo ponies, philosophy can be a major help to you. It doesn’t matter; if it exists under the sun, then walking the narrow, reason-paved path of the thinker will help you to grasp it in the end.
