Essay on Plato on the Existence of Negative Forms

Plato on the Existence of Negative Forms The question of the origin and nature of evil in the world has preoccupied philosophers throughout history. The ancient philosopher Plato does not directly address this question in his writings, but it can be argued that the logic of his theory of forms demands the existence of forms that are negative in meaning, such as the evil and the bad. When discussing his theory of imitation, Plato alludes to the principle that whenever there are many things of the same nature, there is one form for that nature. In several passages, Plato makes mention of many negative things. It can be debated, however, whether or not the negative has a positive ontological character of its own for†¦show more content†¦He writes: Now, the god either because he didn?t want to or because it was not necessary for him to do so, didn?t make more than one bed in nature, but only one, the very one that is the being of a bed. Two or more of these have not been made by the god and never will be. Why is that? Because, if he made only two, then again one would come to light whose form they in turn would both possess, and that would be the one that is the being of a bed and not the other two.[2] Plato is saying that there is only one form for the many because there is a single nature that is recognized as unifying each of the many. It is this nature that imitates the form and since the nature is one, there can only be one form. There are several points in the Republic where Plato alludes to many instances of a negative quality, so it can be argued that, according to Plato?s system, there must be one negative form. For the purpose of analyzing Aristotle?s criticism of Plato, David Ross outlines three distinct respects in which a term can be considered negative.[3] The first category of negative terms that Ross identifies are those which are ?purely negative in their meaning? such as the ?not-good? or ?not-beautiful.? What the many not-good have in common is the absence of being good. The second class of negative terms in Ross?s division encompasses terms that are positive in the sense that they express a qualityShow MoreRelatedPlatos View Of The Worldview Of Plato966 Words   |  4 PagesWorldview of Plato Plato showed more interest in the success of society as a whole as he suggested that not revealing the wisdom or truth to others is a disservice to society. Plato showed more interest in everyday material objects than the average man, he looked towards material objects having a transcendental aspect. This is what made Plato such an interesting philosopher. 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