The Forms

in

Description

Class: 
History of Philosophy and Christian Thought
Lecture label: 
TH620-7

Plato described the universe as having three levels: the world of particulars, the world of forms, and the form of the good.

INTERACT WITH OTHERS IN THE FORUM FOR THIS CLASS.

Outline

Platonic Philosophy

Part 2
 

III. Plato's Theory of the Forms

A. Human beings participate in two different worlds.

1. Physical world (the lower world)

2. "World of Forms" (the higher world)

B. There is a form in the world for every class of object.

1. Universals - properties that are shared by many objects

2. Eternal entities - numbers or propositions that can only exist in a mind

C. The Allegory of the Cave

1. Slaves represent the entire human race.

2. Freed prisoner represents the philosopher who sees the truth.

D. Plato's Three-story Universe

1. The World of Particulars (the material world)

2. The World of Forms

a. Higher Forms

b. Lower Forms

3. The Form of the Good (the sun)

a. The good is the ultimate end and highest goal of human life.

b. The good is the necessary condition of human knowledge.

c. The good is also the creative and sustaining cause of the intelligible world.

E. An Example

Transcript

No transcript data available for this lecture.

Embed

Copy and paste the following HTML code into your web page or blog post to embed our Flash audio player for this lecture into your site.

Reference materials

Help

Instructions for listening to this lecture:

Along the left side of the window are all the files you can download for this lecture. (You need to be logged into you user account to see these links.) This includes a link to download the lecture in high quality or in fast download, and any handouts we have available. If the link does not appear, then we do not have the material.

If you want to listen to the lecture on the computer, you can click the right arrow on the Listen now player (the free Flash player is required). Be patient as it can take some time to start playing if your connection to the internet is not fast.  

Check out the tabs on the page. They show you the outline and transcription for the lecture (if they are available). You can also click on Reference Materials and search BibleGateway for helpful information. If you copy the code under the Embed tab and paste it into your own website, blog, etc, then people can click on your link and listen to the lecture without leaving your site. (If you are not familiar with web technology, your webmaster may need to do this for you.)

Bookmark/Search this page with