Can someone explain to me Platos theory of forms and the participation thing?
Please disregard the first post, only because the response isn’t accurate (it isn’t a personal issue with the person who responded). Plato’s theory of “Ideas” or “Forms” is difficult no doubt, if only because we aren’t use to thinking about things as he (and a lot ancients did; rather, we have scientist do thinking for us). Anyways, for the sake of brevity, we will say a “Form” is that which makes something – be – what – it – is. Take a moment a re-read that last sentence. To further clarify: the “Form” of a chair is that which makes all PARTICULAR, INDIVIDUAL existing chairs what – they – are. If something has the “form” of a chair, it is a chair. Now, you might be thinking “Huh? What’s he talking about?”. One problem we need to remove, before we can advance any further, is the ambiguity, or confusion, of the word “form”. We sometimes use the word form to describe the outward shape of some figure or object (as in “The form of the basketball is spherical”). Plato doesn’t mean anything
