Forms

The School of Athens (detail). Fresco, Stanza della Segnatura, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the philosophy of Plato, the Forms are eternal, unchanging Ideas which, in themselves, are said to be true existence.

Plato believed that the world which we perceive with the senses is illusory. Our day to day reality is a world of becoming. Because our perceptible world is a prisoner of time and always changing, it’s not really real. This view has obvious connections with the Hindu concept of maya.

For Plato, only the eternal and unchanging world of “being” (the Forms) is truly real. Plato outlines his theory of the Forms in the Phaedo and illustrates them through a Cave Analogy in his classic, The Republic.

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