Plato and the theory of ideas: key concepts, criticism and evolution

Plato is considered a fundamental pillar in the development of Western thought. Especially, His theory of ideas has been the subject of debate in both ancient and contemporary philosophy.

In this article we will explore the key concepts of this theory and analyze some of the most important criticisms, such as that postulated by his disciple Aristotle.

In this sense, the relevance of Plato’s approach is such that it has challenged and stimulated the thinking of generations of philosophers. Such is the case of Descartes, great heir of Platonic philosophy.

Plato’s theory of ideas through his dialogues

The theory of ideas has been enriched throughout Plato’s texts. In this sense, we can divide his bibliography into two periods: dialogues of youth and maturity. In each one of them, the postulate of ideas expands their sense and meaning, since this doctrine is not systematically developed in the philosopher’s texts.

Thus, among the youth dialogues we can mention the Apology of Socrates, Laques, Euthyphon, Gorgias and Euthydemus. In them, The theory of ideas is presented as a response to the request to generate definitions. The assumption behind this is that there is some word that represents a set of characteristics.

In this way, for example, in Laques he asks “what is value?” Given this, Socrates asks himself “what is in all these things and is it the same?” This is equivalent to asking that idea that participates in particular things. In this sense, ideas acquire certain characteristics:

They are essences They are models They are universal

They are universal because they participate in particular things as their essences. This means that The idea is that which makes particular things what they are. Likewise, they are models because categories or classes can be established to classify particulars. All these features are necessary when defining concepts.

The theory of ideas in mature dialogues

In the dialogues of maturity, among which are Phaedo, Feast, Republic and Phaedrusbegins to establish a ontological and epistemological distinction of ideas. Firstly, these are presented as entities with an absolute degree of reality, unlike sensible things. The reality of these is rather relative.

Related to this, Plato establishes a difference in the status of knowledge. Ideas are not known through the senses, but through thought. This is further clarified in Republic, where true knowledge is ideas, so much so that he considers that they represent science as such.

For its part, In the sensible world, the knowledge we can aspire to is mere opinion. She is an intermediate between absolute being, that is, the idea, and absolute non-being, represented by ignorance. Plato maintains that opinion is identified with the multiplicity of sensible things.

Characteristics of ideas

Having said this, we can establish those qualities that characterize ideas; These are the following:

UniqueEternalImmutableUniversalParadigmsHomogeneousNot generated

On the other hand, there are sensible things and these also have their particularities. They are the ones we list below:

MutableTransitoryCorruptibleSubject to becoming

This difference in qualities leads to maintaining that ideas, being immutable and identical to themselves, are true objects of knowledge. For their part, sensible things cannot be the object of true knowledge, since they only aspire to opinion.

Criticisms of the theory of Ideas

Aristotle was one of the first philosophers to expose the inconsistencies in Plato’s theory of ideas. In this regard, an article published by the magazine firefly raises four main objections to this theory.

The first of them considers that Plato establishes an unnecessary duplication of things. In this sense, the world of ideas built to give rational support to sensible things is unnecessary.

In second place, the theory of ideas lacks negativity. That is, just as there are ideas of the positive and the things that are, there can also be ideas about the negative and the things that are not or stop being. This is not evident in Plato’s texts. So, for example, if there is an idea of ​​the beautiful, there must be an idea of ​​the ugly.

The third objection maintains that the division between ideas and sensible things is harmful. This is because For Aristotle it is difficult to bring these ideas to sensible reality. For this reason, he dedicates himself in his book Metaphysics to introduce the intelligibility of ideas into the sensible world.

Finally, Aristotle criticizes Plato for the fact that Ideas do not explain how things are produced. Instead, ideas are only concepts whose definitions appeal to an absolute reality.

Dialogue Parmenides

Not only Aristotle makes a criticism of the theory of ideas, but also Plato himself does so in the dialogue Parmenides. In this, a problem arises when we want to relate the sensible world with ideas, since they belong to different ontological realms.

The question that causes this problem is the following: How does the participation of ideas in sensible things occur? There are two possible answers. Either the Ideas participate in their entirety or they do so in parts. Any of these options poses a difficulty.

If an idea is found in its entirety in each of the things, that characterization of the idea as unique would fall. This is because the idea would multiply, separating itself from itself, going against its own being. The same thing happens if the idea participates in sensible things in parts, because its being should be separated into portions.

With this dilemma, Plato shows us that It is problematic to consider ideas as participants in material things. A contradiction then arises with the very definition of ideas, because in his youthful dialogues, they are considered part of sensible things.

Third man argument

The third man argument is clearly outlined by Aristotle. According to this argument, There is an infinite regression of ideas. This is because each of them will no longer be a unit, but an unlimited plurality.

Aristotle maintains that “man” is predicated both of sensible men and of the idea of ​​man. However, this predicate is different from them, therefore, he will be a third man. This does not coincide with the idea or with sensitive men. Furthermore, a fourth man can be predicated that is predicated of the third, thus ad infinitum.

The problem behind this argument is that sensible things and ideas are brought together in the same set. So, The difference in reality between the two is unknown. which were even postulated by Plato himself in his dialogues of youth and maturity.

Impact on Western philosophy

The dualism between the sensible world and the intelligible world or the ideas that Plato expounded in his works had a great impact on subsequent philosophical thought. Ramón Alcoberro, in his book Introduction to Plato, consider that Platonism provided Christianity with a stable philosophical basis. In this way, he had the opportunity to conquer the Western world.

Furthermore, it reminds us of a great phrase from the English philosopher and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead. According to him: “The European philosophical tradition is a series of footnotes to Plato”. In this way, he attempts to demonstrate the enormous philosophical influence of Platonism in the West.

Therefore, the dualism that Plato proposed was later taken up by various philosophers. For example, Descartes was one of them, who held the duality between mind and body. In contemporary times, another type of dualism was exposed, that of the individual and society.

Plato and his inheritance

In this article, we explore Plato’s theory of ideas. According to this philosopher, the physical world that we perceive through our senses differs from the world of ideas. This is the realm of perfect, eternal and immutable entities.

This division had important consequences in later philosophy. On the one hand, made a difference in the field of knowledge. On the other hand, various qualities inherited from it were produced. Therefore, Plato’s thought was very important for the development of later philosophy in the West.

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