Theory of forms

The Theory of Forms or Theory of Ideas, also known as Platonic idealism or Platonic realism, is a <a href="/facts/Philosophical_theory/hJzjtK5p">philosophical theory</a> widely credited to the <a href="/facts/Classical_Greece/WoUfexFx">Classical Greek</a> philosopher <a href="/facts/Plato/jGtT1UD5">Plato</a>. 
A major concept in <a href="/facts/Metaphysics/fSFt6SHe">metaphysics</a>, the theory suggests that the physical world is not as real or true as Forms. According to this theory, Forms—conventionally capitalized and also commonly translated as Ideas—are the timeless, absolute, non-physical, and unchangeable <a href="/facts/Ousia/7r4LSTHw">essences</a> of all things, which objects and matter in the physical world merely participate in, imitate, or resemble. In other words, Forms are various abstract ideals that exist even outside of human minds and that constitute the basis of reality. Thus, Plato's Theory of Forms is a type of <a href="/facts/Philosophical_realism/cPo2pK16">philosophical realism</a>, asserting that certain ideas are literally real, and a type of <a href="/facts/Idealism/w8JAlhjG">idealism</a>, asserting that reality is fundamentally composed of ideas, or <a href="/facts/Abstract_object/uNshak6S">abstract objects</a>.
Plato describes these entities only through the characters (primarily <a href="/facts/Socrates/djIKjImv">Socrates</a>) in his <a href="/facts/Plato%2527s_dialogues/sPedMo74">dialogues</a> who sometimes suggest that these Forms are the only objects of study that can provide <a href="/facts/Knowledge/joozoaup">knowledge</a>. The theory itself is contested by characters within the dialogues, and it remains a general point of controversy in philosophy. Nonetheless, the theory is considered to be a <a href="/facts/Classical_antiquity/JBq8vEX9">classical</a> solution to the <a href="/facts/Problem_of_universals/QEVe2MSK">problem of universals</a>.

Theory of forms open-in-new

Theory of forms