Plato

• Plato's theory of forms

  All things in the world of sense perception are particular instances of universal forms. For example, all tables are particular instances of the Universal Form of a table. The forms are metaphysical and perfect ideas
• Plato's theory of forms

  Plato argues that only composite things can be destroyed/disintegrate. Our bodies are composite, but our souls are non-material and simple (without parts) and therefore cannot be destroyed. This is a dualist belief
• Plato's dualism of immaterial substances includes the parts of the psyche. The psyche is made up of three parts: 1. The logical thinking/reasoning part which seeks to learn the truth, 2. Thumos, which means the spirited part of the psyche and 3. The appetitive part
• Plato's allegory of the Cave 


  Some people are imprisoned in a cave. They have always lived there, and have no knowledge of the outside world. There us no natural light in this cave, and all the inhabitants can see is a shadows on the wall produced by a fire. They presume these shadows are real. One of them finds his way out the cave, and he encounters the things he previously thought were just shadows. Out of compassion, he goes back into the cave to report to the others what he's seen. They don't believe him, and instead plot to kill him.
• Plato's allegory of the cave

  Plato argues that the sun is the light of reason and the returning man represents what philosophers can expect from other people who aren't philosophers. For Plato, many of us are shadows.