The PLATO quiz
23 September 2015
1 – Does the “dividing line” divide, or unite things – and how?
2 – How can we learn to see the Ideas (or Forms), both from within ourselves and from the world around us? Do we ‘see’ the Forms of abstract things (e.g. beauty or love) differently compared to the way we see the Forms of visible things like pens or apples?
3 – Why is Good the supreme Form, and why does Plato choose the sun to be its representation?
4 – Do we become better people, when we “see” things more clearly? Can you give an example of a situation when this happened to you?
Q4) I wouldn’t say that we become better people when we see things more clearly but we definitely become more open-minded and stand out from ordinary people. The reason is that, when we see things just like everyone else, we are just being lazy and ignorant about facts. We just choose to believe in things the way the society wants us to believe in. And for years and years since everyone accepts certain beliefs, nobody actually goes on a journey of pursuit of truth (or world of forms). That’s why Plato states that it is never easy to advance intellectually because it requires effort. Also people aren’t willing to deal with opposers, and since intellectual thinkers are the minority, people tend to just ignore some thoughts. As a result, they accept staying as prisoners and stop themselves from travelling to the world of forms.
The Forms, in my opinion, are the most perfect or idealized representation of something. When we look within ourselves, I think that we are more than capable of discovering the Forms. It is like when somebody has a moment throughout the day where they do something that is selfless, or they have an intense moment of joy…that feeling of self-worth or achieved happiness is so fleeting and perfect (in the moment) that it has to be part of what represents the Forms. Otherwise, we would always have those transcendent experiences. The same concept applies to the world around us…we can see things that occur throughout the day that might be so unique to our environment or different from what it is that we know to be “normal,” that we can recognize it as the Forms. When we see love, for example, it is different then observing an apple because love is something that is in an expression or interpreted through a gesture, rather than something static. It’s that fleeting moment…where an observer could say, “wow that looked like true love.” But then after a moment, the “Forms” of love is gone, and the couple is fighting. This is why we all want to know what the Forms are–to give it all a face, to recognize it in our daily lives…because the Forms are almost anti-human. They reveal themselves in something that’s more than a simple human moment…more like a super-human moment. This, to me, is why Plato regards the Good as the most ideal Form…because who in their lifetime doesn’t want to reach the Good, when life is so tumultuous–sometimes even bad?