ideal forms
Platonic abstract essences
Ideal forms is a concept from Platonic philosophy referring to perfect, eternal archetypes that exist beyond physical reality.
In this view, things we perceive—a beautiful face, a just action, a circle—are imperfect copies of their ideal forms.
The ideal form of beauty transcends any particular beautiful thing.
The concept influences discussions of abstract perfection: He was chasing ideal forms that could never exist in practice.
- universalsProperties holding across all
- essenceFundamental nature of something
- symmetryInvariance under transformation
- archetypesUniversal symbolic patterns
- the GoodMoral excellence itself
world of ideas · eternal truths · noumena · abstraction · perfection · perfect circle · transcendence · geometry · demiurge · participation · proportion · metaphysics · allegory · ontology · anamnesis · pure mathematics · epistemology · goodness
ideal formsshadows
Dark areas from blocked light
phenomena · physical reality · matter · flux · becoming
ideal formssensory experience
Awareness through bodily senses
perceptions · opinions · appearances · phenomena · impressions
ideal formsnominalism
Universals exist as labels only
materialism · particulars · tropes · empiricism · physicalism