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Theory of forms
Definition of a form:
A form is the abstract ideal of any given phenomena. A form is what many different things share in common. It is fixed and unchanging, a heavenly abstract that the soul has knowledge of prior to material existence.
Arguments for the existence of the forms:
1. Argument of the one above many.
Many different things can have similar characteristics. For example, many things are called beautiful. The only thing that can be said that all the separate phenomena called beautiful have in common is that they are in possession of Beauty. Beauty is the abstract ideal, from which the many materialistic examples derive that quality which is beautiful. If all materials that are said to be beautiful are destroyed this does not destroy beauty. This is because true beauty only exists as a form.
2. Argument from a science of knowledge (epistemological argument).
True knowledge is knowledge of the forms. Because true knowledge exists, the forms exist. No natural phenomena is truly knowable, because all that exists is in a state of flux. We cannot truly know that which is forever changing. Therefore knowledge must be based on the forms which give the phenomena their existence. The forms are fixed entities, and though the manifestations of justice may vary from epoch to epoch, the form of Justice remains the same, and is always aspired to.
3. Argument from recollection.
When we consider a concept we are recollecting the form that our souls are familiar with from their time before existence. We do not get the notion of equality from natural phenomena, because there is no perfect example of equality in nature. But we know that each example of equality is aspiring to that perfection that we call the form of Equality. We get this notion from the recollection of the forms that our soul is familiar with.
The form of the good and the real.
Taking the argument of the one from many to its logical conclusion, it is natural that there is a form which is above all other forms, a superior form, which encapsulates all that is common to all forms.
Because the forms are the distilled perfection of all things, the superior form is the distilled perfection of all forms, the form of the good. Because it is the forms that give existence to all things - beauty does not exist without the concept of Beauty - it is the superior form that gives existence to all forms.
Therefore the superior form is the form of the good and the real.
What is a nice idea is that all that is in existence is also, by definition, good.