QUESTIONS OF REALITY

Lesson 7 - THE IDEA OF FORMBY PLATO AND ARISTOTLE

Presented by:Arnel O. RiveraLPU-Cavite

Based on the presentation of:Mr. Alexander Rodis

PLATO’S TWO WORLD: APPEARANCE AND REALITYPlato introduced this two spheres or levels of

reality:What appears to be real? - BecomingWhat is real? - Being

The world of Being, is populated by realities called FORMS, which are the causes of the particular things that exist beneath them

Plato believed in a transcendent world, an external and unchanging reality:HIS VIEW OF REALITY IS A REACTION TO THE EXISTING VIEW OF

REALITY: He criticized Phytagora’s view of subjective reality “Man is a measure

of all things.” Understanding of being must be anchored in some objective (that is exist outside of our minds) independent (it is not dependent on anything else for its existence) and absolute (it does not come or go or otherwise change) REALITY.

The second is the criticism of Heraclitus’ view of everything is constantly changing, nothing stand still for a moment, the world and everything in its is in a ceaseless movement. He said “You can’t step on the same river twice”…Plato inherited from still another pre-Socratic philosopher, Parmenides, the idea that genuine knowledge and discourse must be about what is and not what is not. What is being must be one and unchanging.

 

PLATO’S THEORY OF FORMS The term Form here is also known as IdeasThe term Idea here does not refer to the

ideas that exist on our minds but the Platonic Ideas which is objective and absolute: they would exists even if everything else where to disappear.

THE WORD FORMThe word form came from the Greek word

“eidos” which means form in a usual sense: shape, structure, appearance

Platonic Form has something to do with what a thing is, and thus even with its physical structure, shape or appearance.

Other word for FORM: essence, nature, essential structure, object of a definition

CHARACTERISTICS OF FORMS:Objective.

They exist “out there” as objects, independently of our minds or wills

Transcendent. Though they exist “out there”, they do not exits in apace and time; they lie, as it were, above and beyond space and time.

Eternal As transcendent realities they are not subject to time and therefore not subject to motion or change

Intelligible. As transcendent realities that cannot be grasp by the sense but only by the intellect

 Archetypal. They are models for every kind of thing that does or could not exist.

Perfect. They include absolutely and perfectly all the features of the things of which they are the models.

THE THEORY OF FORMS It is the belief in a transcendent world of eternal and absolute

Beings, corresponding to every kind of thing that there is, a causing in particular things their essential nature.

MORE GENERALLY: for every particular and imperfect thing in the world of BECOMING (a table, a chair, an instance of justice, an example of beauty, a circle) there is corresponding reality which is its absolute and perfect essence or FORM in the world of BEING (Table, Chair, Justice, Beauty, Circle)

The particular or imperfect thing, though imperfect, is what it is by virtue of its corresponding form, which imparts to it, or causes in it, its essence or general nature.

Because something has an essence or general nature, it is an imperfect something.

On the other hand, it is an imperfect something because while it reflects the being from above, it is invaded and contaminated by nonbeing from below: the changeless is set in motion; the one is multiplied into many, absolute is relativized, the universal is particularized

DEGREES OF REALITY AND KNOWLEDGEPlato distinguish two layer of reality: Being – FormsBecoming – their sensible copies.

Degrees of knowledgeIntelligence – understandingThinking - reasoningBelieving – perceptionImagining - imagination

ARISTOTLE’S CRITICISM OF PLATOAristotle’s criticism on Plato’s Theory of Form is the

problem of the “chorismos” a Greek word with means “separation”.

How can the Forms be the causes of the natures or “whatness” of things without being in those things?

How do transcendent and unchanging Forms account for the most evident fact about the things around us, namely their coming into being and their motion and change?

ERGO: The “chorismos,” or separation, between the Forms and particular sensible things, like a great gulf fixed, makes it impossible for the Forms to do anything for those things at the most critical points.

ARISTOTLE’S VIEW OF FORMAristotle also believed absolutely in Forms.The difference lies in their views of how the

forms are related to particular things.Aristotle rejected the idea of transcendent

Forms in favor of an idea of immanent FormsImmanent Form is a view of Forms as existing

within particular sensible things

Forms can only be causes of things if they are in those things.What is out there is particular thing.The Form and essence of things exist only as

individualized or particularizedThe Form (which accounts for the essence or whatness

of a thing) combined with the matter (which gives that essence a concrete and particular expression) is what is REAL.

This view of Idea is called hylomorphic composition (from the Greek word hyle, “matter” and morphe, “form”)

This view of reality applies only in the natural world it is not applicable with God because God is devoid of matter and He is Pure Form

REALITY AND TELOSThe conviction of reality is infused and governed by

teleological principles.TELEOLOGY comes from the Greek world telos, end or goal

and means the study of or the belief in, principles that give rise to the order and purpose that pervades all reality.

There are four principles or causes which are necessarily involved in the constitution or explanation of a thing:

MATERIAL CAUSE – the matter or stuff, something is made out of

FORMAL CAUSE – is its essence, or whatnessEFFICIENT/MOVING CAUSE – is what brings the thing into

beingFINAL CAUSE –the end or purpose of the thing

ARISTOTLE suggested that the formal, efficient or moving final cause can be lump together to the formal cause and twofold distinction:

Material CauseFormal Cause