Plato’s
Theory of Idea or the Form
Ish
Mishra
Plato’s
theory of Idea or the Form constitutes the philosophical foundation of Plato’s
political theory. The problems variety and the change have been common
questions for ancient Greeks, who were trying to discover the uniting element
in the variety, i.e. the one in many; and the permanence in
the ever changing world. Pre-Socratic Greek philosophy generally addressed
to the observation of life and motion of the natural, particular objects and
phenomena and their patterns from which they tried to generalize and derive the
universal qualities of particular, particularities. Socratic search begins with analysis of human
psychology. Various philosophers came up with varying answers; Plato
conceptualized the world of Ideas, in his answer and propounded the Theory
of the Idea or the Form of Good. In doing so, he dialectically unites
the two opposite views of Heraclitus and Parmenides. For the former, the world
is in continuous state of change and flux and the only constant is the change
itself. According to Parmenides, world is permanent, unchangeable and that the
change is an illusion[1]. Plato combines the two and
propounds that the visible, phenomenal world, which we empirically observe and
sense-perceive is changeable/perishable, but the world of Ideas or the Forms is permanent. The
commentators on the subject use the Form and Idea interchangeably, for the sake
of convenience; we shall be using the word Idea only henceforth. Plato makes a
distinction between the worlds of objects, the visible world, which can be
known by sense-perception; and the invisible world that could be known only by
reasoning. The permanent element of the changing object is its Idea that is
eternal; infinite; final and independent reality. According to him it is beyond
time-space but being the progenitor, is represented through them. Plato’s
dialectical description of the world and the dialectical unity of opposites,
like Hegel many centuries after him, is in inverted order. The idea cannot be
progenitor or creator of the object, but emanates from it. Newton’s law of
gravity does not make the apple to fall down vertically, but explains the
phenomenon of falling of object from particular height. First let us see, what Plato
means by the term?
A pre-Socratic Greek
philosopher, Thales defined the things with changing appearances as substance,
the existing state of affairs. Plato declares these substances to be
of momentary importance, mere shadows of their essence, the Form or Idea. Plato
cites the example triangles. Many triangles could be drawn and omitted but the
quality due to which all such particular geometric figures are known by this
name, the tringularity, which is permanent and universal. Similarly he
cites the examples of various particular horses and girls with horsiness or
girliness as their respective permanent, universal Ideas. I share one of
my experiences with my daughter when she was very young, to explain the
Platonic Idea of the object and their inter-relationship. She demanded to eat a
fruit. She was offered the particular fruits. She refused to accept
mango, banana etc., particular objects she had already known through her sense
perception and would have thought that fruit must be some particular eatable
like them. “Not banana; not grapes; not guava, I want to eat fruit”. There
happened to be a vendor selling strawberry, which she ate as a fruit. This is
to say that the universal Idea of a particular kind of particulars is their
universally common quality, through which they are known by that name. Plato
demonstrates it cave allegory or
the myth of cave[2], in which few chained
prisoners think the shadows as reality and after one of them frees himself and
is amazed and amused by the sight of sun-light. Plato portrays the darkness of
the cave as ignorance (illusion); the fire at the gate the visible object, and
the sunlight as intelligible Idea. But he does not care to explain the fact
that how the prisoners did got chained and reached the darkness of the cave?
Were they born chained together? They would have been taken into prisoners in
war or mob lynching. Logic of Plato’s highly eulogized cave allegory is
very illogical, he himself calls a myth. Nevertheless
the message it conveys is: the fulcrum of one’s knowledge depends upon the
limitations of her/his exposures, as mind reacts to the sense perceived reality
of the existing things. Sometimes inadvertent consequences become more
substantial than intended ones.
Plato
supposed that the reality was essentially or "really" the Idea
and that the phenomena were mere shadows, the momentary portrayals of the Idea under
different circumstances. The Idea a distinct singular thing causes plural
representations of itself in particular objects. For Plato, Ideas, such as
beauty, saintliness etc. are more real than any objects that imitate them.
These
Ideas are the essences of various objects: they are that without which a thing
would not be the kind of thing it is. For example, there are countless tables
in the world but the Form of tableness is at the core; it is the essence of all
of them. Plato's Socrates held that the world of Forms is transcendent to
our own world (the world of substances) and also is the essential basis of
reality. Super-ordinate to matter, Forms are the most pure of all things.
Furthermore, he believed that true knowledge/intelligence is the ability to
grasp the world of Forms with one's mind.
For Plato the Idea is transcendent to space and time. “The Ideas
make the things what they are”[3]. The abstract, invisible Idea
is the model or perfection and of the visible objects, its appearance, so they
resemble not only with it but also among themselves, like the siblings of the
same parents. For him not the objects but the Ideas are the subject of
episteme, the knowledge. Plato uses a line diagram to prove it.
. To demonstrate the
distinction between essence and appearance, Plato uses the line diagram to
demonstrate that the essence of the phenomenal world lies not in itself but
outside in the world of Ideas.
Intellibble world visible world
A
----------D-------------C--------------E---------------- B
(Original
diagram is vertical with A as the uppermost point and the B as lowest)
If the
universe is represented by the straight line AB and C is its mid-point and AC
as the invisible world of Ideas. D and E are points on AC and CB respectively
so that AD: DC = CE:EB. AD is the world of Ideas, i.e. the realm of knowledge;
DC of understanding like studies in science, mathematics etc.; CE the area of
existing world, knowledge about which in Platonic parlance, in no knowledge,
only technical knowledge that he calls opinion. Let us leave it here to be
elaborately critiqued in discussion on Plato’s theory of knowledge.
There
is no problem with his assumption of dialectical composition of the world but
his priority and portrayal of relationship between the worlds of ideas and the
phenomenal world can and must be questioned and contested. Objects have existed
without ideas and the ideas have historically emanated from the object. Plato
projects a derivative half- truth as truth. The total truth is dialectical
unity of object and idea with priority to the object. The word fruit as
universal identification of particular objects would not have come into being,
if there were no particular, perishable object like mango; banana; grape et.al.
That is to say that the idea of particular, its universal form emanates from it
and hence cannot be prior to it or its progenitor. It is the sense perceived
reality that stimulates the faculty of reason to discover, the laws governing
its motion. For example, had there not been the sense perceived reality of
vertical fall of the objects from the height, stimulated the mind of Newton to
discover its idea – the gravitational laws.
Sense
perceived reality is also not the totality of the truth, but partial. It answers
the question, what? But it does not answer the questions why and how? Newton’s
laws do gravity do, but had not there been the sense-perceived answer to what?
The questions, why and how would not have arisen and the infinite, eternal idea
could not be born contrary to Plato’s claim that they exist by themselves.
Therefore the idea cannot be the only or entirely the “real” reality. The
totality of reality or truth is the balanced combination of the two – the sense
perceived reality and it’s contemplated or the philosophically abstracted idea.
Any way mind too is one of the human senses and thinking is a practical act. As
Marx and Engels have theorized, the truth is constituted by the dialectical
unity of the object and the idea; the material conditions and corresponding form
and level of social consciousness.
The Idea of the Good
The
Idea of Good is the Idea of the Ideas. The Idea of Good enjoys the same status
in the world of Ideas, as the Idea among its particular objects. As, by now, we know that Plato locates the
essence of particular, sense perceivable, changeable and perishable objects not
into objects themselves but outside into their permanent, eternal, unchangeable
universal Ideas or Forms with capital I and F respectively. We also know that
Plato accords priority to the Idea over object, as it is the progenitor, the
model, the ultimate reality of the object and is beyond the time and space. The
objects resemble with not only their Ideas but among themselves, as the children
of the same father not only resemble the father but among themselves also. The
visible world, as it is changeable and perishable, cannot be really real but
not unreal either. It lies in the middle of the real, its Idea and unreal, its
shadow. It is semi real. This philosophic assumption would be reproduced in an
improvised and more sophisticated for by Hegel many centuries later and
contested and reversed by Karl Marx.
After
theorizing the Idea of the objects, Plato moves to his main point, the basis of
the Ideal state ruled by philosopher king, the Idea of Ideas, the superlative
or the supreme Idea, the Idea of Good. Comprehension of the Idea of Good is the
ultimate knowledge and the knowledge is the virtue and the ideal state must be
ruled by the virtuous and hence deduction of the need of philosopher king
automatically follows. The Idea of Good is the final and independent reality,
“existing itself by itself”. The way he traces the source of existence of
particular objects into their Ideas, the same way he locates the source of
existence of the Ideas into the Idea of Good. Plato argues it to be the
ultimate basis of knowledge.
Plato
generally emphasizes on definition but leaves the final reality, the Idea of
Good undefined that would be subsequently replaced in the medieval period by
another ultimate, undefined reality, like the God in theology. Plato confesses
that the meaning of the Good cannot be clearly defined but only known through
reason. The knowledge, the wealth or the happiness are not Good themselves but
just the conditions of Good. The Good is the final end of anything. It is the
basis of knowledge and ethics and the source of all the virtues, like truth,
beauty and the justice. The final objective of human life is attainment of the
Idea of Good. Where Plato cannot define illustrates with similes; analogies and
prevalent or constructed myths. Plato uses the slimily of the Sun to illustrate
the Idea of Good. The Idea of Good in the intelligible world is the same as the
Sun in the visible world. According to him the Ideas live not in the visible
but intelligible world and hence form the subject of contemplation and the
objects of the phenomenal world reside in the visible world and are the
subjects of sense perception and not contemplation. In the visible world eyes
sight things only when they are exposed to the light and the source of the
light is the sun. Plato argues that the sun is neither light nor the objects of
sight but their source and cause. Sun, as said above, occupies the same position
in the visible world, in his scheme as the Idea of Good in the intelligible
world. This slimily could be better explained by following diagram:
Visible
World Intelligible world
Sun
------------------------ Idea of the
Good
Light
---------------------------- Truth
Objects
of Sight (Things) -------------------------- Objects of Knowledge (The
Ideas)
Sight
------------------------------
Knowledge.
To sum up Plato’s Theory
of undefined Idea of Good, we can say that it is related to the world of Ideas
in the same way as the world of objects in terms of being progenitor; finality;
absoluteness and supremacy. Plato does not answer the question, what is the
Idea of Good? It cannot be described but can only realized through dialectics
or contemplated through the application of reason. Can everyone comprehend the
Idea of Good? Plato’s answer is a clear no. Only those, who have ability and
training in dialectics imparted in the highest stage of educational scheme can.
Who have this ability and how is that determined? Those people whose innate
domain of excellence is Reason, described in his theory of trilogy of the
soul. How is that determined? Through
elimination tests conducted at various stages of education. Thus Plato not only
gives the idea of state regulated education but also is the first political
philosopher to conceptualize the meritocracy. As has been mentioned before, in
medieval times, also known as dark ages, the Good was replaced by God and only
the true devotees can know Him.
09.08.2018
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