Plato's Five Dialogues: The Necessity Of Forms

Topic Two: The Necessity of Forms In Plato’s Five Dialogues, Plato discusses one of his hypotheses called the Theory of Forms. The theory of forms is Plato’s way of explaining how we interpret, know, and understand things. Plato believes that nothing in this world is what it seems to be. Take a tree for example. We can all form a picture in our head of what a tree looks like. Although some may be satisfied at this conclusion, Plato, being a true philosopher, wants to discover the true meaning of things and what gives these things meaning. This is the pursuit of wisdom, the ultimate goal of philosophy. Plato believes that what makes that tree a tree is the form of tree-ness. This form is the pure essence of what a tree is. It is important to know that Plato believes that in this world we never see the true form of an object, but we only see the appearance of this form. It is necessary to have these forms because a true understanding of the forms is the only way to obtain wisdom.

Using the example of sticks and stones, he explains that although two sticks can appear identical, they are not truly equal. His first premise is equal sticks and stones sometimes appear unequal. This inequality comes from our perception of the sticks and stones. The next premise is equality never appears to be inequality; one and the same thing cannot have and lack a property. This is the principle of non-contradiction. Plato concludes that equality is not the same as equal things. The only way to explain the phenomenon of equality is through the forms. A pillar of this philosophical viewpoint is that these forms exist in perfection in another world, a world that is unchanging and