The Forms

The forms (sometimes capitalized: The Forms), for Plato, are roughly speaking archetypes or abstract representations of the many types and properties of things we see all around us. There is, therefore, on Plato's view, forms of dogs, of human beings, of mountains, as well as of the color red, of courage, of love, and of goodness. Indeed, for Plato, God is identical to the form of the good. The forms are supposed to live in what is, for Plato, not entirely inaccurately described as a "Platonic heaven." For Plato, when human beings die, their souls achieve some sort of reunion with the forms--reunion, because souls originate in and even, in life, have some recollection of, this Platonic heaven.

Form and idea are terms used to translate the Greek word eidos (plural eide). Plato used this term to formulate his theory of universals. "Idea" is a misleading translation, because for Plato, the eide do not exist in the mind.

For more information about Plato's theory of universals, see Platonic realism. See also the divided line of Plato.