Platonic ideals
Abstract eternal essences
Platonic ideals are perfect, eternal forms that exist beyond the physical world—the abstract blueprints of which earthly things are imperfect copies.
In Plato's philosophy, a beautiful painting merely participates in the ideal of Beauty itself.
The phrase now describes any perfect standard against which real instances fall short: The dish was the Platonic ideal of macaroni and cheese.
- universalsProperties holding across all
- perfectionAbsence of any fault
- essenceFundamental nature of something
- formShape or document
- the GoodMoral excellence itself
archetypes · Allegory · allegory of the cave · abstraction · Symbolism · eternal · Justice · philosopher king · cave · divided line · eternal truths · perfect circle · demiurge · geometry · participation · Socratic method · Dualism · goodness
- ethicsmorality, deontology, dignity, sanctity of life, utilitarianism
- Greek philosophyAristotle, Socrates, Pythagoras, Academy, ethics
- philosophyethics, logic, metaphysics, ontology, epistemology
- ancient ethicsAristotle, Socrates, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Epicurus
- ancient philosophyAristotle, Socrates, Epicureanism, Stoicism, Platonists
- Art Philosophyromanticism, transcendentalism, sublime, beauty, symbolism
Platonic idealsmatter
Space-occupying substance with mass
flux · becoming · appearances · shadows · instantiations
Platonic idealsempiricism
Knowledge through observation
sensory experience · positivism · inductive reasoning · empirical observation · scientific observation
Platonic idealsnominalism
Universals exist as labels only
materialism · physicalism · conceptualism · particularism · pragmatism