EDF1005-Reflection #13

Plato believed that the basis of all things was truth which is how idealism is formed. Everything came from truth, starting with mathematics. The best thing in life was truth and everything else was important. Plato’s theory of ideas was known as Forms. His theory of Forms was a separation between the worlds of different ideas. He believed that Forms was knowledge known for sure, for a fact that was unchangeable, and things that were actually discovered were insignificant. He also thought that things that change aren’t real. If something were to be real is had to be unchangeable, and stay as is. Idealism is something that is “ideal” therefore the truth of something. Forms were something concrete and which couldn’t be changed, but were examined intellectually. For example, a circle is a Form because it has a radius, a circumference, etc. Love isn’t a type of Form because that is something abstract that changes from one person’s view to another’s. A Form was for example, putting all types of different things into a group that had similar characteristics with each other. Something that would change would be considered unreal to him according to his Theory of Forms. One form of idealism was Platonism. Plato’s theory of Reminiscence believed that we were born with Forms and a sense of knowledge but we tend to forget them once we are born. A lot of people don’t believe this theory today, because we tend to learn from others that are older than us as we grow and experience things in life that they once did. This is almost like being the first born child, they are the ones that experience everything first and pass on the information to the younger siblings. One of the ideas I believe are still being used today by Plato is his belief that children should be taught by the society as a whole rather than just their parents. I believe this is a fact, because even today we learn something new every day from one another. Plato believed that the main concern in life was to live a happy and good life, but in order to do this one must have the knowledge of what is good. The process of this involves the Form of Good.