Plato and Philosophy of Religion

Question	Answer
Form	Plate- the idea of something. The form of anything is not physical but is the eternal idea of what a thing is.
Archetype	An initial model or idea from which later ideas and models of the same thing are all derived.
Form of the Good	The highest of all the forms. Plato said that it was also the source of the other forms.
Analogy	The act of comparing one thing with another that shares similar characteristics, to help a person learn about the first thing.
The cave	The famous analogy written by Plato which he uses to explain some part of his theories of forms.
Two worlds.	Appearances (This world.) Reality (the Forms.)
Characteristics of the forms	Transcendent, Unchanging, Archetype for things that physically exist, Immortal.
Form of the good.	Highest form, source of the other forms.
The third man argument	The Third Man Argument is a regress argument that purports to show that if there is even one form of F, then there are infinitely many forms of F. Arisitotle- a copy of a form could turn out to be an infinite series that would never stop.
Criticisms of Forms	Forms could just be ideas in the mind, Unclear link between Forms and the world of appearances, No proof, The third man argument.
Cave analogy key elements.	Tied up prisoners- people trapped in the world of appearances. The fire and the shadows- imitations and copies of the forms. The world above ground- the world of Forms. The sun- Form of the Good.

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	Created by laur_sh over 9 years ago