Plato and the Forms

Plato never really had an explicit definition of the Forms. There is no set dialog where the

forms are laid out. Instead they are a running theme throughout the Republic. In this essay I

will try to decipher Plato's Ð''theory of the forms' in reference to his cave allegory.

Plato first introduces the Forms in book 5 of the republic. Forms for Plato are what he

understood to be the reality behind each concept and object in the visible world. For example

if we look at a football we see that it is round has a certain colour weight ect. If we separate

one aspect of that from the object that is a form, so if we separate roundness form the colour

and weight of the ball we are thinking of the form of roundness. The form of roundness is

transcendent and will always be. Even if every football in the whole world was destroyed the

form of roundness would still exist because it exists outside space and time. The forms

themselves are pure and for Plato are the only true things. What we perceive through our

senses as our reality is in fact wrong. The senses mislead us and blind us leaving us ignorant

to the true reality of forms. The form of the good is the highest in Plato's eyes. When

discussed in the republic those who reach understanding of the form of good are the ones who

will become guardians of the republic.

To explain this Plato gives us the allegory of the cave found in book 7 of the Republic.

Socrates says to Glaucon: Imagine a cave with men imprisoned inside since childhood. They

are chained so that they can only see in front of them. Behind them is a fire and above them is

a road with a small wall. All these men are able to see are shadows cast on the wall from men

on the road above like a puppet show. These prisoners believe this to be reality, much like we

perceive our sense reality to be true. Socrates suggests that if one was to be freed and taken

up out of the cave they would be bewilled and would want to turn back, however with some

guidance and adjustment he would in time become able to look upon the sun in all its glory

without reflection and see the true world rather than the cave. If the man was to be taken back

down into the cave he would again need to readjust to the darkness of the cave, and the other

prisoners would think he has been damaged from going out of the cave and would try to harm

any one who tried to do the same to them.

In essence this is Plato's republic. The darkness of the cave with its shackled prisoners

represents ignorance. To Plato the men who rule Athens are ignorant to the true world,

blinded by greed and corruption. Plato believes that the enlightened few should rule over the

city as they have strived to reach the form of the good. We as people live in a blissful

ignorance of the world around us. Many are content on just being and swallowing what they

are told by those who rule over them. For Plato are existence is no better that those men

chained in the cave. They do not whish for change or expansion of the mind; they are content

to just live in their existence. The prisoner who was freed from his ignorant world represents

enlightenment. The struggle the man has to look at the light of the fire and try to understand

that the images projected on the wall were not anything more than shadows is the struggle

philosophers go through when the start the journey for the truth. The ability to shake of the

shackles of the sense world and except that what you thought was reality is in fact false is a

bewildering experience for everyone. But there are those few who are able to press on with

their journey and go on to ask difficult questions about the world and what they hold to be

true. The shift towards the light and the prisoner's journey out of the cave is the philosopher's

journey to the form of the good. The last thing the prisoner is exposed to before he goes back

into the cave is the sun. The sun represents the form of the good. This is actually a clever

metaphor. Socrates describes this as "...this is indeed the cause for all things of all that is right

and beautiful, giving birth in the visible world to light....light itself in the intelligible world

being the authentic source of truth and reason, and that anyone who is to act wisely in private

or public must have caught sight of this" By using the sun to represents the form of good

Plato is saying that Good is the basis of all life, it has an effect on all things in the world just

like the sun. However if the ascension into the enlightened mind of a philosopher is

something every one should want and desire, why does Plato emphasize the shunning the

prisoner received when he returned to the cave. Surely to promote his idea he should want to

show that the prisoner is welcomed back into the cave with open arms fully admired by the

other prisoners. Also when he talks of the form of the good he is only talking about it in its