THEORY OF FORMS- PLATO

by T K Jayaraman IRS(Rtd)

Theory of Forms is attributed to the Greek Philosopher Plato. Let me

explain what it is. We say that an object is beautiful. A flower is

beautiful. A girl is beautiful. A temple is beautiful and so on. But what

is “beauty “? Nobody can answer that question satisfactorily. Here

comes Plato. According to him, there is a form of perfect or ideal

beauty. Where is it? It is in a realm which is different from our world of

matter. It is not matter. It is beyond this material world. Like this for

every quality which we can think of, there is an ideal or perfect form in

the realm of Forms. If you think of something good in our world of

sense perception, be sure it is not perfectly good. That perfect object

is in the realm of Forms. It is not In Time and Space. It is eternal. The

cat which we see is not the perfect cat. The perfect cat is in the realm

of Forms. According to Plato, only a philosopher can apprehend the

Forms. For Plato, our world of sense perception is less real than the

realm of Forms which contains all the perfect Forms of things. This is

Plato’s Theory of Forms. It is also known as theory of Ideas. Another

name for this theory is Objective Idealism. In other words, there are

ideal objects. But the world of sense perception contains only

imperfect objects.