Plato as a Man

Plato lived from around 428 BC to 348 BC. Meaning he was less than 30 years old when his teacher Socrates was prosecuted and sentenced. In the next 50 years of his life, he founded the Platonic Academy as a philosophical school, and kind of invented the dialectic method as seen in his dialogues.

Plato wrote around 35 dialogues in which he used the dialectic method to talk about philosophical problems. Most of the dialogues are from Socrates’ perspective and some are not. Even for those dialogues that are from the perspective of Socrates, we do not know for sure if Plato is repeating Socrates’ ideas or are these ideas, his own creation and he lovingly is ascribing to his teacher.

What are Abstract Objects?

There are physical objects that exist in the material world, these are the things we can interact with, things made up of fundamental particles, the sun, the earth, the table, a goat, a man, and so on. However, we often talk about some things that are not made up of these fundamental particles, but we use the same language for them.

Good and evil, justice and injustice, karma, luck, morality, theories and laws, classifications of living things, the idea of meters per second. We talk about these things as real entities even though they are not physically within reach. There is another category of abstract objects found in mathematics such as the concept of circles and triangles. Abstract Objects are such concepts that we hold to exist but we cannot touch them.

Nominalism

Now there are two main branches of thought here, Nominalism and Platonism. The more modern concept is nominalism where these abstract objects do not have an independent existence. They are manmade concepts and are only named and shaped that way because our brains structure knowledge for our convenience. A square does not exist. Four equal lines arranged perpendicularly exist and we just put a label on it called a square. Similarly, mammals do not exist, we put a label on animals with shared genetic history as birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and so on.

Similarly good and evil do not exist. We have cultural standards for good and evil based on traditions and consequences where sneezing on someone is bad and murder is evil. However, evil does not itself exist as an entity independent to humans. We create the concept of evil instead of borrowing the idea from some non-physical place.

Platonism

Platonism lives opposite to Nominalism derived from the philosophy of Plato. Platonism has many conclusions but everything starts with the following foundational claim. "Abstract objects like good and evil exist independent to humans."

In ancient Greece, the time of Greek mythology, the time of oracles and ritualistic sacrifices, this was not a bizarre idea, but it was still out there. In terms of philosophy, this gives rise to Idealism. That something nonphysical exists independent to humans. No matter what happens to us, somewhere out there, these abstract concepts are floating around; concepts that we can access but cannot change, they are independent from us.

Why do these Abstract Objects Exist?

To simplify Plato's argument on why these abstract objects exist is to say that, "Abstract objects exist because we can think about them." Surely, there has to be something there so that we can conceive of them.

This does not really hold well in the modern world, but still, it is what it is.

To examine why this is not as dumb as it sounds, consider it in the following way. Everything that you have knowledge about requires the independent existence of that thing. Surely, the only reason you know about tables and chairs is because they exist independent to you and you interact with them, you see them, feel them and can even lick them. Knowledge, as Plato understood it, is figuring out what other things are and the major chunk of our knowledge like the knowledge of tables and chairs comes from outside us.

Similarly, let us think about the concept of a perfect circle or a right-angled triangle. At this time, Pythagoras had already established the Pythagoras Theorem a century ago so geometry was well known. In the physical world, we cannot make a perfect triangle because a triangle requires that two lines converge to one point whereas all real world lines have a thickness to them and they will never be a real triangle. A perfect circle is equally as impossible.

However, I can think of a perfect circle and make claims about them that are logically true. Similarly, I can talk about triangles and make claims about the formula for their areas and so on. You can think about those claims too. I can tell you my mathematical theory and you can intuitively know whether that theory is true or not.

Let us say we are in a room and there is a wooden table in the middle. For us to think specifically about that wooden table, we would have to see that wooden table itself, and more importantly, that specific wooden table must exist. In the same way, if we can think specifically about a perfect circle, then that perfect circle must also exist, and we must have at some point 'seen' that perfect circle before to be able to talk about it.

The Theory of Forms

Plato called these abstract objects 'Forms', but his forms are a lot more comprehensive than just these purely abstract objects like good, evil, circle and triangle. The idea starts in the following way.

Plato saw that everything around him, specifically the material world was dynamic. Let us take the example of a chair. It has certain qualities when it was created and it is not perfect. Over time, it degrades, and we can see its ‘chairness’ increase or decrease. Maybe it breaks a bit so it is less of chair, and then it is repaired and now it is more of a chair. Thus, we can separate the concept of a 'chair' from a specific chair. In this sense, the concept of a chair refers to the perfect chair with which we compare all physical chairs intentionally or unintentionally. It is as simple as seeing a broken piece of furniture and intuitively knowing it is a banged up chair.

Similarly, we compare all men with their imperfections to the perfect conception of a man. We see people and judge them based on their deficiencies. It could be deficiencies in the form of disability, handsomeness or financial inabilities. However, whom are we comparing these specific men to? A perfect man, an abstract object.

This means that Plato not only believed in the existence of abstract objects like circle, but also believed that things like an abstract man and an abstract chair existed.

These abstract objects are called "forms" because all the objects including chairs and humans in the physical world are "formed" from the blueprints of these abstract objects. Plato believed that these abstract objects are the very blueprints for the existence of every single thing. Following this, it also requires that all things have a blueprint. If it exist in the physical world, it must be based on some "form" from which it is formed.

The World of Forms

Where do these "forms" reside? Plato gave his metaphysical ideas that reality consists of two realms. The physical realm, and the world of ideas or the world of forms. This realm of existence is immaterial, eternal, and unchanging.

How can we access these forms?

If you remember the premise that we must have seen these abstract forms at some point to think about it, the question comes up, where did we see these abstract forms? Can our mind go to this world of forms and revisit the form of an ideal circle again and again? No, that would be dumb.

Instead, Plato introduces some more abstract objects. Human souls. Plato believed in the existence of human souls. And they have the same properties as abstract objects. Human souls are unchanging, eternal, and immaterial objects. A soul is 'incarnated' into a human body and it is human consciousness. Soul is the self for Plato. The entity that is thinking about the world and these abstract ideas is itself an abstract object called soul.

Still the soul cannot willy-nilly go up to the world of forms whenever it pleases to check out these forms. Instead, the soul starts its journey in the realm of forms where it lived. At that time, the soul took in all the information about all of the forms, every single one of them.

When it was time for the soul's adventure to the physical world, the soul is incarnated into a body to reside. If something happens to the body, the soul returns back to the immaterial realm from where it came from. However, during incarnation, the soul forgets everything. Maybe forget is the wrong word. The idea is that all the knowledge from the world of forms becomes shrouded, locked, behind some door.

Through reasoning, the use of logic, these innate ideas can be unlocked. When we want to know what it means to be a chair, all we need to do is think hard enough and we will know what a chair is supposed to be and so on. Anamnesis is this process of recollection of innate ideas from the soul's time in the world of forms.

Rationalism

This process makes Plato a Rationalist. As a reminder, rationalists believe that the primary source of knowledge lies innate to us through logic and deduction. If we ask Plato how should a human organize his life, his answer will come from his innate ideas instead of an informed opinion from his experiences. At least that is what Plato will claim.

Plato will claim that a good man must be dutiful, physically active, loyal, social, and so on. Not because he has experienced that such men make the best society, but because he believes these qualities are present in the "form" of man. By using reason, Plato can remember what his soul saw in the world of forms about the perfect man.

Dualism and Idealism

Plato is an Idealist, but it is tricky. Dualism is the metaphysical claim where two realities exist simultaneously. Plato agrees that there are two realities, one material and one immaterial. However, dualism requires these two realities, or these two substances, to be independent. Sure, they can interact, exchange information, but remain independent.

However, according to Plato, the physical world is dependent on the world of forms. How could something exist without its blueprint? Since the physical world is the manifestation of these forms, then it is not pure dualism. Thus, Plato's metaphysics aligns more closely with Idealism where the independent existence is that of an immaterial reality.

With this concluded, we will go into more detail next about Plato's forms being used to construct his ethical theories.