According to Plato, there exists two worlds, our immanent world of dynamic impermanence and a fantastic realm of defining forms that hold together the flux of former world. Using this epistemological sector of Plato’s philosophy (the theory of forms), the subjects of this Hydria (water vessel) by a Medias painter demonstrate the existence of these two worlds, the dependence of one on the other and most significantly the implications of bridging the gap between the two. The subjects of the vase acknowledge each realm’s respective roles in the flux of immanence. Plato's theory of these forms reveals a totality formed by the harmonious support flowing between each reality.
According to Plato, the material world is merely a representation of the ideal society above us. The world of "forms" as he calls it, accounts for every action, appearance, and emotion we experience as a sensation. Manifestations visible to the mortal eye are imitations of the real (transcendental) world's archetypes (Kraut). The world of mortality cannot possibly be perfect as it is merely an embodiment of the ideal forms above. However, the original types causing the existence of our world have imperfect qualities too. The primordial forms exist as disembodied forms. The appearance of entities in our mortal realm embodies those incomplete forms. Thus, one cannot exist without the other.
The intelligible world according to Plato is that of three realities. The three truths are eternal, invisible, and universal realities. He defines the three facts as being immutable and dynamic in that; they do not change because they are not material and neither are they temporal or space-related (Waithe, 45). Ideas can be identified and understood because they are ultimate reality. Ideas subsist as independent beings and objectives of our human conscience. They also exist as concepts of our human minds. Plans also are the origin of sensible things thus the reason why Plato does not deny the reality of practical stuff unlike his other counterparts like Parmenides of Elea who deny sensibility and the occurrence of sensitivity.
The sensible world also referred to as reasonable reality according to Plato’s philosophy applies to the world of facts existing individually. These worlds may exist in more than one form and can always change always like the world of destruction and generation. He explains this reality as being the area of temporal, spatial, materialistic, and sensible things.
In essence, Plato’s philosophical thought determines that there are definite universal, independent things, which differ from the sensible real world. First, Plato argues that science based on just sensation to discover truth is not possible because it does not change things scientifically. He gives this notion because science must always be based on a motive, which studies ideas or nature.
Second, Plato argues that language differs in various geographical areas. He says that some terms are universally known and often mean a similar idea to most people; therefore, they should match a concept (Mitchell, 35). For this reason, Plato assumes that there should exist some universal forms to match the global ideas.
Third, Plato argues that science cannot work with continuously changing things like those found in a sensible world (Mitchell, 35). It is for this reason that Plato says that science cannot be used to study practical world knowledge, but instead it can be used to analyze a world that is immutable. Plato gave an example of an unchanging reality as mathematics and a superior philosophy also known as dialectic. He gave his support regarding scientific expertise as being a reason that is universally exact. Plato thinks perfect experience is a precise reality of real things because mathematics refers to immutable ideas.
Works Cited
Kraut, Richard, "Plato," The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (summer 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2012/entries/plato/>.
Mitchell, Helen Buss. Roots of Wisdom: A Tapestry of Philosophical Traditions. Boston, Massachusetts: Cengage Learning, 2015: 28-59
Waithe, Mary Ellen. A History of Women Philosophers: Ancient Women Philosophers. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 2017: 45
