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Philosophy vocabulary · Key Thinkers' Concepts

theory of Forms

Meaning in philosophy, with examples

nounCommon term

In philosophy, theory of Forms means: Plato's theory that beyond the changing physical world there are perfect, eternal and unchanging Forms, such as Beauty or Justice itself, which things only imperfectly copy.

In Turkish: idealar kuramı, idealar öğretisi, formlar kuramı

How it is used

Also called the theory of Ideas; Forms is often capitalized to avoid confusion with ordinary forms. It is developed in dialogues such as the Phaedo and the Republic, and criticized by Aristotle and even, in the Parmenides, by Plato himself.

Example sentences

  1. According to the theory of Forms, a beautiful painting only shares in Beauty itself.

  2. The allegory of the cave is often read as an illustration of the theory of Forms.

Common collocations

  • Plato's theory of Forms
  • the Form of the Good
  • participate in a Form
  • the world of Forms
  • allegory of the cavePlato's story in the Republic of prisoners who see only shadows on a cave wall, used to show how education leads the mind from appearances to true reality.
  • idealismThe metaphysical view that reality is fundamentally mental or depends on minds, so that no world exists entirely independent of thought or experience.
  • essenceThe set of properties that make a thing what it is, without which it would not be that kind of thing at all.
  • metaphysicsThe branch of philosophy that studies the basic nature of reality: what exists, what things are, and ideas such as time, cause, identity and possibility.

More terms: Key Thinkers' Concepts

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