Platos Metaphysics

Plato's Metaphysics
Oxford Handbooks Online

Plato's Metaphysics
Verity Harte
The Oxford Handbook of Plato
Edited by Gail Fine
Print Publication Date: Aug 2008
Online Publication Date: Sep
2009
Subject: Philosophy, Classical Philosophy, Metaphysics

DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195182903.003.0008
Abstract and Keywords

This article focuses on the idea of metaphysics as described by Plato. Plato's writings are not themselves shaped in
reflection of modern subdivisions of philosophical areas and the form in which they are shapedthe often heavily
and self-consciously crafted dialogue formdoes not naturally invite separate identification and treatment of the
writings' often tightly interwoven philosophical threads. It discusses a certain feature of Plato's ontology: his
commitment, at least in certain works, to the existence of a special class of entities, once known in English as
ideas, these days more commonly referred to as forms. The article further discusses ideas such as the Theory
of Forms and it asks whether it has developed over a period of time. The language of forms, where do they occur
and how are they categorized are also elaborated in the article.
Keywords: metaphysics, modern subdivisions, crafted dialogue, ontology, entities, forms, language of forms
I. Identifying Our Topic

Any attempt to write about Plato's metaphysics must be, to some extent, a work of construction and runs the risk of
artificial separation between topics that are, for Plato, naturally related. Plato's writings are not themselves shaped
in reflection of modern subdivisions of philosophical areas and the form in which they are shapedthe often
heavily and selfconsciously crafted dialogue formdoes not naturally invite separate identification and treatment
of the writings' often tightly interwoven philosophical threads. With the possible exception of the Parmenides, no
work of Plato presents itself as being as a whole on a topic that we could without distortion understand as
metaphysics narrowly construed, although it is fair to say that some works are more obviously metaphysical in
character than others. In what follows, therefore, readers should understand that there is an engagement with the
works of Plato from a perspective that, in certain respects, may differ from his own.
Metaphysics is a heading under which a range of topics might be considered. In discussions of Plato's
metaphysics, what takes center stage is, typically, a certain feature of Plato's ontology: his commitment, at least in
certain works, to the existence of a special class of entities, once known in English as Ideas, these days more
commonly referred to as Forms. The present essay is no exception in this regard. This narrowing of the subject
has some justification. Forms are seen to play a central role in Platonic counterparts to many of the topics one
might expect to find discussed in a modern course on metaphysics (topics, for example, such as the nature of
reality, the metaphysics of properties, and causal responsibility), while not all the topics one might find in such a
course (topics, for example, such as (p. 192) possible worlds or paradoxes of time travel) have obvious
counterparts in the work of Plato. There are, however, recognizably metaphysical topics, Plato's treatments of
which would undoubtedly be valid and interesting objects of study but which are not considered in any detail here.
Examples include the metaphysics of composition, the nature of time and space, personal identity, and the
existence and nature of god(s).1 Omission of such topics is partly due to the limitations of space and partly due to
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Plato's Metaphysics
the desirability of having a relatively unitary focus.
This narrowing of the topic of Platonic metaphysics to Plato's ontology itself has some advantage as regards
locating Plato's metaphysical theorizing within his own immediate tradition. For, unlike metaphysics as such,
ontologyunderstood as the rational investigation of what there is or of beingis a branch of study for which Plato
could find obvious precursors in his philosophical predecessors, perhaps most notably, the Eleatic philosopher,
Parmenides, in whose Way of Truth one finds an account of a subject identified only as being (in Greek: to eon),
which, as has often been noted, attributes to being many of the characteristics that Plato would subsequently
ascribe to Forms.2 In Plato's works, Forms themselves are identified most generally as the beings (in Greek: ta
onta, or at least in many places apparently equivalently: ousiai).3
Plato's place in this tradition provides the overall focus of this essay. Like Parmenides, and like Democritus, the
atoms of whose atomic theory are also noticeably Parmenidean, at least on common understandings of these two
Presocratic thinkers,4 Plato is a philosopher for whom reality differs from the way in which it presents itself to us in
perceptual experience and must be rationally discovered. Plato is a realist, at least in one common use of the term
realist; he is committed to the existence of a world that is objective and mindindependent.5 But he is a realist, we
might say, of an essentially optimistic variety. Given the existence of a world that is genuinely objective and
independent of human thinking, there are, we might think, no very good reasons to suppose that human thinking
will have any means of access to the character of the world. Plato, like rationalistminded philosophers before and
after him, believes that our most prominent apparent sources of access to the worldour sensesare often
radically mistaken about it. Nevertheless, he nowhere doubts that knowledgethrough rational inquiryis
possible.6 This metaphysical orientation underlies the (p. 193) central contrast in his metaphysical theorizing, a
contrast between what is intelligible and what is perceptible. It is this contrast and no other, I argue, that shapes the
contours of his ontology.
II. Is There a Theory of Forms? And Does That Theory Develop over the Course of Plato's Writings?
Our focus is on Forms. But we must first consider what sort of evidence is available to us about Plato's views about
Forms. In addition to talking about Forms, discussions of Plato's metaphysics commonly talk of Plato's Theory of
Forms. But not everyone agrees that Plato has what should be described as a theory of Forms,7 and many people
who are content to talk in terms of a theory find that theory only in one or other subset of Platonic works.
Discussion of Plato's Theory of Forms thus gets quickly caught up in controversies regarding the development of
Plato's thought. Indeed, on one view, the Theory of Forms, its development and its subsequent rejection, is the
central narrative in this development, whose transitions are marked, first, by the introduction and elaboration of a
theorized account of Forms in central works of Plato's socalled middle periodworks such as the Symposium,
Phaedo, and Republic, in particularand, second, by Plato's signaled rejection of this account of Forms in the
Parmenides.8 A few words on these matters are in order, then, although my remarks are made with the intention of
setting such questions about development aside so far as is possible.
The answer to the question of whether or not there is a Theory of Forms will depend on one's criteria for theory.
What does seem clear is that Forms are theoretical entities. By this, I do not mean simply that they are not given in
perception, nor are they among the data of commonsense, although, at least prima facie, they are not. Rather,
Forms are theoretical entities in the sense that they do some theoretical work. I give four (what seem to be the)
central examples. As I have already said, Forms have a role to play in Plato's theory of being or what there is:
1. Forms are (among the primary) beings.
2. Further, especially in the Phaedo (96106), Forms are identified as having causal responsibility9 for things
other than Forms having some of the character they do; the Form of beauty, for example, has causal
responsibility (p. 194) for the beauty of anything else that is beautiful. In this way, Forms are not only
themselves beings, they are causally responsible for at least certain other aspects of the character of the
world, as well.
Given these roles in Plato's theory of being, it comes as no surprise that Forms have central roles to play in Plato's
theories about the ways in which we talk and think about the world also.
3. In the case of language, it seems from several works that Forms play a special role in relation to the
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language we use to describe the world; they are in some way privileged bearers of the terms that we use to
describe those aspects of things for which they turn out to be causally responsible.10
4. In Plato's theory of knowledge, Forms turn out to be objects of knowledge and of a privileged sort.11
It is, of course, conceivable that Plato started out with some (independently motivated) commitment to this favored
sort of entitythe Formand then sought out contexts in which to put it to theoretical work. More likely, however, is
that Forms are theoretical entities in the sense of being entities whose claim to existence is justified or defended in
light of the theoretical work they do. One might defend this view by appeal to a passage of the Parmenides
(130b1e3) in which Socrates, invited to answer questions about the range of Forms to which he is committed and
finding himself uncertain, suggests that the reason not to subscribe to a Form for such items as hair, mud, and dirt
is that these are things that are just as we see them to be (130d34). Socrates appears to reason here in the
following (reasonable) way: where there is no theoretical work for Forms to do, there is no reason to posit them.12
In general, this understanding of the theoretical status of Forms gains support from the fact that, within the Platonic
corpus, there are no clear examples of direct arguments for the existence of Forms.13
Given this understanding of Forms as theoretical entities, when it comes to possible lines of development, one
might expect that any developments in the conception of Forms would be driven by developments in his views on
questions associated with the various theoretical roles that Forms play, developments in his views about the nature
of language or knowledge, for example. This makes the task of considering whether Plato's theorizing about Forms
is something that develops over the course of his writings considerably more complicated. In what follows,
questions about development are left outside the frame of this discussion, to the (p. 195) considerations
elsewhere in this handbook of the larger topics within which Forms have theoretical work to do.
III. The Language of Forms

This still leaves open the question of where we should look for evidence of Plato's views about Forms. As far as use
of language goes, the central terms used to identify Forms in indisputably canonical accounts of Formsin
particular, the Greek terms idea and eidos 14 turn up in a wide range of works across the corpus that cut across
candidate boundaries between developmental stages in Plato's thought. In some places, these go along with
comparatively rich characterizations of the nature and role of the objects picked out by these terms, in others not;
in some places, these characterizations are obviously similar, in others less obviously so.
For example, in Socratic dialogues of definition, such as the Euthyphro, for exampleworks that on widely
accepted chronologies of the order in which Plato's works were written were produced earlier rather than laterwe
find the language of Forms, including hallmarks of what, as we have already indicated, are Forms' central roles.15 In
Euthyphro 6d11, for example, Socrates indicates that he is looking for that form (eidos) in virtue of which all the
pious things are pious, using causal language comparable to that found in the explicit theory of Forms as causally
responsible set out in Phaedo 96106. But the Socratic dialogues provide no real detail as to the ontological
character of Forms. Had an accident of survival left us in a position where these and only these works of Plato
survived, it would, I think, be something of a challenge to reconstruct from them the Theory of Forms of scholarly
conception or, indeed, of the sort that could warrant Aristotle's much publicized objections.
This lack of detail might be taken to indicate that these works constitute an early stage in the development of
Plato's theory, where later works develop or extend the account of Forms so as to provide the metaphysical
underpinnings for Socrates' search for definitions.16 Alternatively, one might view it as a consequence of a
presentational strategy that takes you through an ordered sequence in which the picture does not develop but is
gradually filled out.17 The evidence does not (p. 196) seem to me clearly to decide between these positions. Nor
do we need to, for there are pragmatic reasons not to consider the evidence about Forms from these Socratic
dialogues. Precisely because they do not offer a rich characterization of the ontological character of Forms, it is
difficult to derive much of our view about the nature of Forms from them. Note, however, that this is in reality only a
matter of degree. Even in the canonical treatment of Forms in the Phaedo, the Republic or Symposium, the
characterizations of Forms are richer, but not rich; at the least, they leave open many unanswered questions, a
fact the Parmenides' searching reprise might be thought to acknowledge.
More difficult is the question of what other dialogues to include; the Timaeus, Sophist, Politicus, and Philebus, for
example, all have discussion involving the language of Forms. These are dialogues generally held to be among the
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later group of Plato's writings, postdating not only the discussions of Forms in the Phaedo, Symposium, and
Republic but also those in the critical examination of the Parmenides.18 Their discussion is in certain respects like
and in certain respects unlike the discussions of Forms in these earlier works, so that it is unclear the extent to
which it indicates a departure from their view of Forms. These later works do not play a central role in the
discussion here, again for pragmatic reasons. Both they and the Parmenides, the nature and import of whose
treatment of Forms would be critical to any attempt to tackle the question of where these later discussions fit within
the context of Plato's treatment of Forms, are considered in detail elsewhere in this handbook.19 So far as is
possible, however, I attempt to remain neutral on the question of development related to the characterizations of
Forms therein.
For better or worse, then, our (main, if not exclusive) focus is the somewhat, but by no means fully rich
characterizations of the ontological character of Forms in the canonical discussions of the Phaedo, Symposium,
and Republic (to which we might add also the Phaedrus).
IV. What Forms Are There?

One striking feature of discussion of Forms in both Phaedo and Republic, especially, is that discussions of Forms
are typically framed as though all participants in the conversation are already familiar with Forms and have some
idea of what Forms there are. This is somewhat surprising if Forms are here being introduced and theorized for the
reader for the first time, although it is possible that the (p. 197) mismatch between reader and participant is
precisely designed to draw the reader's attention to the novel features of what is being said. Whatever its intended
purpose may be, one effect of the strategy is resulting unclarity as to what the scope of the theory is intended to
be.
Consider, for example, the following passage that occurs early in the Phaedo and is its first introduction of Forms:
What about the following, Simmias? Do we say that there is such a thing as the Just itself, or not?We do
say so, by Zeus.And the Beautiful, and the Good?Of course.And have you ever seen any things of
this sort with your eyes?Not at all, he said.Or have you grasped them with any of your bodily senses?
I'm speaking of them all, for example, of Largeness, of Health, of Strength, in sum of the being of all of the
others that each happens to be.20 (Phaedo 65d4e5)
Here, we have a list of examples of Forms: 21 Just, Beautiful, Good, Largeness, Health, and Strength. This list, in
itself, is a rather odd assortment of items, including values, a size property, and physical characteristics. It is
completed by a generalizationall the restwhose scope is utterly opaque.
Somewhat better is the generalizing move that follows Socrates' subsequent argument, in the Phaedo, to the effect
that the soul can be shown to preexist its embodiment on the grounds that, when embodied, it has cognitive
abilities requiring that, prior to embodiment, it had knowledge of Forms. The argument takes the Form of Equality as
example, but it applies, Socrates says, to Forms in general, whose range is indicated as follows:
For our present argument is no more about the Equal than about the Beautiful itself, the Good itself, the
Just, the Pious, and, as I say, about all the things on which we put as a seal this mark what is, and about
which we ask and answer in our questions and answers. (Phaedo 75c10d5)
Socrates here ties the scope of Forms to the scope of Socratic questions and answers. Socratic questions ask
What is F? for some range of properties. The Form is identified as What is [F]that is, as the referent of the
answer to this Socratic inquiry. In this way, he fixes the scope of Forms. But this fixing is not very informative, since
we are no clearer on the intended scope of such Socratic questions and answers than on the scope of Forms.
If the passages containing examples and generalizations of this sort are not helpful in fixing the scope of Forms, we
might turn to the arguments in which we find them. As I have said, the Platonic corpus does not provide us with
direct arguments for the existence of Forms, which we might use to establish their scope. (p. 198) Forms do play
roles in a number of arguments, however, and we might turn to these arguments to investigate what range of Forms
they could be used, indirectly, to establish. The results of such investigation, however, turn out not to be
straightforward.
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Commonly, Forms are introduced as pairs of opposites. In both Phaedo 102b105b and Republic 475e476e, for
example, we find as examples of Forms a series of pairs of opposites: in the Phaedo, Largeness and Smallness, Hot
and Cold, Odd and Even; in the Republic, Beautiful and Ugly, Just and Unjust, Good and Bad.22 And it is a central
feature of Forms, in these passages, that a Form cannot be characterized by its own opposite, something that isn't
the case for other, perceptible bearers of the same name as the Form (this point is central to the Phaedo passage
cited above; see especially 102d103c).23 And it is sometimes suggested that a passage of Republic VII makes
explicit a restriction of Forms to opposite properties.24
In Republic 523b ff., in preparation for the establishment of the educational curriculum for the philosopherrulers,
Socrates contrasts two sorts of sense perception: one sort does not summon the understanding to investigate, and
one sort does exhort it to investigate. Socrates illustrates this contrast by the example of looking at three fingers:
the smallest, ring, and middle fingers. Perception of a finger as a finger is an example of the sort of perception that
does not summon the understanding to investigate, precisely because perception does not deliver up two
opposing perceptions at the same time: sight doesn't suggest to [the soul] that the finger is at the same time the
opposite of a finger (523d56). In the case of perception of the finger as having certain opposing properties, by
contrast, as being, for example, large or small, thick or thin, hard or soft, Socrates says that perception precisely
reports that the very same thing that the sense reports as large, thick, or hard, it says to be the opposite also
(524a610 especially). And perception of opposing properties like these is the sort of perception that, for this
reason, does summon the understanding to investigate.
Sight, however, saw the large and small, not as separate, but as mixed up together. Isn't that so?Yes.
And, for the sake of clarity on this, understanding was compelled to see in turn large and small, not mixed
up, but distinguished, in the opposite way from that.True.And isn't it from these sort of cases that it first
occurs to us to ask what the large is and what the small.Absolutely.And thus we called one intelligible,
the other visible.That's right. (Republic 524c3d1).
The investigation that is initiated by perceptions that summon is an investigation of the sort that lead to the
recognition and identification of Forms. Hence the contrast between those properties perception of which summons
and those (p. 199) properties perception of which does not summon could be taken as an indication of a
restriction upon the range of Forms to that of the summoning properties: that is, to Forms that are opposites.25
However, if this passage is understood to imply such a restriction in the scope of Forms, it is inconsistent both with
examples of Forms we find elsewhere and with another passage of the Republic that has also been taken to
indicate the scope of Forms.
First, the examples: even without going outside the works on which we are focusing (and which are indisputably
home to the canonical Theory of Forms), it is easy to find at least candidate examples of Forms that do not have
opposites: in Republic X, Forms of Couch and Table (596b12); in the Phaedo, Forms of Fire and Snow (103c13).
And if we were to consider works throughout the corpus, examples would come easier still. But these latter
examples will be moot, because of questions about development, and the first group of examples can all be
brought into doubt, if doubt is sought. Republic X is an unusual context, and it is just not clear what we should
make of this talk of a Form of Couch and of Table, which plays a role in Socrates' development of an elaborate
analogy between painting and poetry in the service of his notorious criticisms of mimetic art.26 And there is some
external evidence (for what this is worth) that Plato did not, in fact, believe in Forms of artifacts.27 As to the
Phaedo's examples, the passage does not provide unequivocal evidence that Fire and Snow are themselves
understood as Forms, as opposed to being entities that stand in some necessary relation to a Form, which Form
conforms to the restriction of Forms to opposites.28
Turning from the examples to the other passage of the Republic that appears to speak to the question of the scope
of Forms, we find, at least on the face of it, a different result from the book VII passage. In book X, immediately
before the introduction of a Form of Couch and of Table, Socrates offers what appears to be a procedure for
generating Forms, which is commonly translated along the following lines:
Do you want us to begin our examination, then, by adopting our usual procedure? As you know, we
customarily hypothesize a single form in connection with each of the many things to which we apply the
same name. (Republic 596a57)
Read in this way, the passage proposes a range of Forms far wider than that implied by reading the scope off the
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distinction in Republic book VII. Indeed, the range (p. 200) would be wide to the point of potential absurdity: Do
we really want a Form for any general term, no matter how unnatural, gerrymandered, or empty it might be? Again,
however, the evidence is not decisive, again because of the unusual context and also because the passage need
not be translated in this way. Smith proposed that the passage should be construed, rather, as making the claim
that we commonly assume, [as a rule of procedure,] that the Idea which corresponds to a group of particulars,
each to each, is always one, in which case we call the group of particulars by the same name as the [Form].29 On
this construal, the passage does not carry any implication about the scope of Forms.
My view is that it is a mistake to seek to use either of the Republic passages considered (book X or book VII) to
settle the question of the scope of Forms, and not simply because they appear to answer the question in ways that
are inconsistent with each other. For all practical purposes, the book X passage is unavailable for use to settle this
question. Its construal is vexed, and its context is such that it is hard to know what more general use can be made
of the points that are made therein. In the case of book VII, I think it mistaken to view the passage either as making
or implying a point about the scope of Forms. Notice the care with which Socrates puts his claim, at 523d45: in the
case of those properties, like being a finger, perception of which does not summon the understanding, the soul of
the many is not compelled to question what a finger might be (emphasis mine). What could and should be
questioned by the soul of the few (the author of the Parts of Animals, for example) is another matter.
It thus does not follow from what Socrates says in book VII that properties like being a finger are ones whose
content does not merit rational inquiry of the sort that would discover and identify a Form. And it certainly does not
followas Socrates does not claim, anywaythat the distinction he draws between properties that summon and
those that do not corresponds to an ontological distinction between Forms and other noncFormal properties. What
follows is just what Socrates emphasizes and the sort of point that the passage's educational context requires:
properties that summon are those for which the fact that an understanding of them needs rational inquiry is
conspicuous or obvious in a way that it is not in other cases; such properties are thus well chosen for use in the
design of an educational curriculum that has as its object the turning of attention away from perception to reason.
Suppose, nevertheless, that we ask ourselves what this passage can tell us about the intended scope of Forms. Its
moral, I suggest, is the contrast from which we began: between reason and perception. The scope of Forms is set
by the limits to the unproblematic deliverances of perception, if unproblematic deliverances there be. But this
passage has not told us what these limits might be, and the limits may themselves be things about which Plato has
shifting conceptions, according as his views of the respective contributions of perception and reason develop and
change. This general claim may not satisfy, inasmuch as it fails to deliver a determinate (p. 201) answer as to
what Forms there are. However, it has the merit of being consistent with the verdict arising from the one passage in
which Plato explicitly raises, without settling, the question of the scope of Forms for our consideration. This is the
passage of the Parmenides mentioned above that gives indications of the sort of criteria that ought to be used to
settle the question. Forms are not needed in those cases where things are just as we see them to be. What
cases these are may be for us to discover.
V. How, in General, Are Forms Characterized?

When Forms are characterized, it is, as often as not, as part of a contrast between the characteristics attributed to
Forms and the characteristics attributed to certain perceptible counterparts to Forms. These perceptible
counterparts are generally called particulars, but I argue below that this label is importantly misleading. Typically,
Forms are identified as having features that their perceptible counterparts prominently lack (such as unity and
stability, for example) or as lacking features that their perceptible counterparts prominently have (a susceptibility to
qualification by conflicting pairs of opposite qualities most notably among them). Questions about the
characteristics of Forms are thus bound up with questions about the differences between Forms and their
perceptible counterparts.
Consider, for example, the contrast drawn in the following passage from the Phaedo:
Let us then return to those same things with which we were dealing earlier. That being of whose being we
give an account in our questions and answers: is it always in the same condition in the same respects or
does it vary from one time to another? Does the Equal itself, the Beautiful itself, each thing itselfthat
which isever admit any change whatever? Or does each of these things that is, being of a uniform
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character taken by itself, remain the same in the same respects and never in any way admit any sort of
change whatsoever?Necessarily, said Cebes, it remains the same in the same respects, Socrates.But
what about the many beautifuls, such as people or horses or clothing or any other things of this sort, or
about the equals, or about all those sharing a name with those things? Do they remain the same, or, in
complete contrast to those others, do they, practically never in any way remain the same as themselves or
each other?The latter is the case, said Cebes, they never remain the same.Then, is it the case that,
whereas you could touch and see and perceive with the other senses these latter, there is no way to
grasp those that always remain the same than by reasoning of the mind; rather, such things are invisible
and not seen?You're absolutely right. (78c1079a5)
(p. 202)
Socrates uses this contrast to establish that there are two sorts of being: one visible, the other invisible (79a67).
And this is the overarching contrast between Forms and their counterparts: Forms are not perceptible, but
intelligible; their counterparts are perceptible. These two sorts of beings are further characterized in terms of their
respective stability or instability. Intelligible Forms are invariant; they do not change. Their perceptible
counterparts, by contrast, are in no way invariant but subject to change. It is unclear quite how these two contrasts
are meant to be related, but the shape of the passage suggests that the receptivity to change of their perceptible
counterparts is intended to support the view that changeless Forms are intelligible as opposed to perceptible.
The passage raises a number of questions. First, how should we understand the terms of the contrast here and
elsewherethe contrast between the many beautifuls and the Form with which they share a name? This is a
question I return to later. Second, how should we understand the comparative instability of the perceptible
counterparts to Forms? Is the suggestion that Forms' perceptible counterparts never in any way remain the same
meant to imply that they are, instead, subject to variation in every respect? Plato has sometimes been regarded as
taking such an extreme view of the condition of perceptible things. However, if this extreme view were in question,
it would be hard to see why Cebes would immediately agree with this picture without any question. Still, even if we
do not suppose that Plato's view is extreme in this way, we must still ask ourselves what sort of change is at
issue.30 This is linked to the third question, which is how susceptibility to change of this sort (or these sorts) would
support the view that (insusceptible) Forms are intelligible as opposed to being perceptible.
The change to which the perceptible counterparts to Forms, unlike Forms, are subject may include such
unproblematic examples of change as coming into being or perishing, growth or diminution, and so on. But it seems
likely, also, to include a phenomenon that we might not be immediately inclined to think of as an example of
change. This is the phenomenon generally known as the compresence of opposites. Certainly, when, in the
Symposium, Diotima seeks to explain to Socrates the Form of Beauty's manner of always being, she denies both
that it is subject to ordinary sorts of changes and that it is subject to the compresence of opposites; this is in
implied contrast to its perceptible counterparts.
First, it always is and neither comes to be nor passes away, neither waxes nor wanes. Second, it is not
beautiful this way and ugly that way, nor beautiful at one time and ugly at another, nor beautiful in relation
to one thing and ugly in relation to another, nor is it beautiful here but ugly there, as it would be if it were
beautiful for some people and ugly for others. (Symposium 210e6211a5)
At its most general, the compresence of opposites is a situation in which it would be true to say of some subject
both that it is F and that it is unF (the (p. 203) opposite of F): that it is, for example, both beautiful and ugly. This is
among the things here denied of the Form of Beauty. A simple example of the occurrence of the compresence of
opposites in a perceptible counterpart to a Form might take the form of the following example from Phaedo 102b3
6: Simmias is both large and small (or, perhaps, both larger than and smaller thanit is the comparative terms that
Socrates himself uses at b5): large in comparison with Socrates (larger than Socrates), small in comparison with
Phaedo (smaller than Phaedo). This example may be misleadingly simple. Whether it illustrates the only or central
form of example and the manner in which it might be expected to provide support for the intelligibility of Forms are
matters I return to later.
The respective invulnerability and vulnerability to the compresence of opposites of Forms and their perceptible
counterparts is one candidate, and, in my view, the best candidate explanation of what is meant by another broad
contrast between them, which has prominence in the Phaedo especially. This is the view that the perceptible
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counterparts to Forms are in some way deficient in comparison with the perfection of Forms. Consider, for example,
the following agreement between Socrates and Simmias, applied to the Form of Equal and its perceptible
counterparts:
Well, then, he said, do we experience something like this in the case of the equals among sticks and the
other equals we mentioned just now? Do they seem to us to be equal in just the same way as what is Equal
itself is? Is there some deficiency in their being such as the Equal, or is there not?A considerable
deficiency, he said. (Phaedo 74d48)
Equality here means geometrical (rather than, as it might be, political or social) equality, that property in virtue of
which things are of the same measurement in some dimension of measurement. Socrates and Simmias agree that
the perceptible counterparts of the Form of Equal have some deficiency in respect of this property when compared
with the Form itself. This deficiency has been interpreted in one of two ways.31 On the Approximation View,
Socrates and Simmias agree that two sticks, for example, cannot be exactly equal in any dimension of
measurement; they may look equal, but, with sufficiently accurate measuring equipment, we would find they are
not. On the Compresence of Opposites View, by contrast, Socrates and Simmias agree that equal sticks are both
equal and unequal (albeit in different respects); they may, for example, be equal in length but not in weight; equal
to each other but not to some third stick of different dimensions.32 Notice that Plato cannot simultaneously maintain
both of these views, for they are inconsistent with each other. By Approximation, sensible equals are not in any
respect exactly equal; they merely approximate equality. By Compresence, in contrast, sensible equals are,
indeed, exactly equal, in some respect; they are also unequal in some (other) respect.
(p. 204)
I favor the Compresence of Opposites view of deficiency for the following reasons. First, it seems to me that it would
at the least be hugely controversial to claim that, as a matter of fact, no two perceptible objects could have exactly
the same measurements as each other in some dimension of measurement. The very existence of one case of the
dimension in some perceptible object seems to prove the possibility of its occurring twice. The claim at issue, it
should be noted, is much stronger than the possibly trivial claim that we are often fast and loose in our
identification of things as being equal, and that many things we identify as such turn out to fall short of equality
upon closer examination. It is, however, the stronger claim that is needed for the Approximation View. And it seems
to me that we should avoid the attribution of controversial claims where none are needed. Second, the
Approximation View seems unable to deal with those instances in which there are Forms for each of a pair of
(binary) opposites. The Form of Equal is one example, if there is a Form of Unequal also.33 The problem for the
Approximation View is that whatever is only approximately equal seems to be something exactly unequal. The view
cannot thus be simultaneously maintained for each of a pair of (binary) opposites.
These first two reasons have been illustrated with reference to the Phaedo's own example, but both would appear
to generalize across at least a wide range of candidate Forms. It also seems important that both reasons do apply
so readily to the very Form that Socrates chooses as an example when making the point about the deficiency of
sensibles in comparison with Forms; the greater plausibility of one or other view with respect to this very example
should count in its favor. The final reason to favor the Compresence View is that it seems to cohere much better
with those passages in which there seems undeniable interest in the compresence of opposites, both in the Phaedo
and elsewhere (Phaedo 102b36, mentioned above; more controversially, but, I think, plausibly, in a vexed
passage in the immediate context, 74b7c3; 34 and, for example, Republic V, 478e7479d5), especially since, as
we have seen, Plato cannot consistently maintain both views of the status of Forms' perceptible counterparts.
Notice, however, that we now find ourselves confronted once more by the question of the scope of Formsin
particular, by the question of whether there are Forms only for pairs of opposites. If perfection is a defining
characteristic of Forms in contrast to their perceptible counterparts, and if what perfection amounts to is an
invulnerability to the compresence of opposites with which their perceptible counterparts are afflicted, then it looks
as if there can be Forms only of opposites.35 (p. 205) As it is, however, there seems no clear evidence for this
restriction in the scope of Forms (which would have been easy enough to state). And there is some evidence
against such a restriction in scope, in candidate examples of Forms that do not have opposites.
Faced with this question, there seem to be three different options for keeping the scope of Forms broader than the
focus on compresence of opposites might be taken to suggest. First, one might decide that Plato thinks the
36
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phenomenon of compresence of opposites is found more broadly than we might think.36 Second, one might deny
that the contrast between perfect Forms and imperfect sensible counterparts is, in fact, a defining characteristic of
Forms.37 In this way, we need not take imperfection, so understood, to constrain our understanding of the scope of
Forms. But we would still need to explain the prevalence of interest in the presence or absence of the
compresence of opposites, whether or not it is part of a contrast between imperfect perceptibles and perfect
Forms. Finally, then, in a manner similar to the point made above in connection with Republic book VII, one might
suggest that the compresence of opposites is given attention as an especially conspicuous aspect of some
broader phenomenon that has the potential to apply to a broader range Forms, under which broader phenomenon
compresence may be subsumed.
How might this final strategy be cashed out? Without pretending to the sort of detailed examination one would really
need of this question, two possibilities suggest themselves. One is to recall that Forms are contrasted to their
perceptible counterparts as being invulnerable to ordinary sorts of change, as well as to the compresence of
opposites (as in the Symposium passage quoted above). Suppose that Plato shares with Aristotle the view that
negative predicates like is not human are true not only of presently existing things that are not human but also of
things that previously existed as humans, but which no longer exist.38 then, it is as true to say, today, that
Socrates is not human, as it would have been true to say of him that he was human, on the fateful day recorded in
the Phaedo.39 This is not a case of compresence of opposites. But it is a case of something of which compresence
of opposites might be construed as a more vivid example.
A second, possibly related way in which to cash out the strategy would be to draw on one final broad contrast
associated with the difference between Forms and their perceptible counterparts: the contrast between being and
becoming, a key, but unclear statement of which is found in the Timaeus:
In my judgement, then, we must first make the following distinction: what is that which is always, having no
becoming, and what is that which becomes always, never being? The former is such as to be grasped by
thought with (p. 206) reason, being always in the same condition, whereas the other is such as to be
grasped by judgement with unreasoning perception, becoming and ceasing to be, but never really being.
(27d528a4)
While the relation between the Timaeus and the discussions of Forms on which we have been focusing has been
left an open question, the contrast drawn here seems clearly in some way related to the contrast drawn at Phaedo
7879, quoted above.40 Consider, then, one persuasive interpretation of what Plato may mean by the contrast
between that which becomes and that which is, put forward by Michael Frede.41 Things that become are things
that, relative to some specific times, contexts, or relations take on the character or marks of some formal feature, F,
but not in virtue of having or being some nature that is F. Only Formal naturesthat which is captured by a
definition of Fare, as opposed to become, F. Occurrence of the compresence of opposites, in respect to some
F, is one conspicuous, but not the only, indication that perceptibles fail to satisfy the requirements on things that
are (what is) F, and hence merely become F, at some times and in some contexts or relations.
VI. Where Are Forms?

The question Where are Forms? may seem an odd one, but it seems to me worth considering, insofar as it will
sharpen our understanding of the questions there are about the relation between forms and their perceptible
counterparts. Further, odd though the question may be, it is one that, even in popular thought about Plato, as found
in a nonspecialist encylopedia, is commonly given an answer: Forms exist in some Platonic heaven.42 This
answer may be intended metaphorically, since Forms are also (and with justification) commonly understood to be
immaterial, nonspatially extended objects of a sort that are not naturally thought of as having spatial location.
Nevertheless, the metaphor implies the existence of a location or quasilocation for Forms, which is distinct from that
of the location of ordinary material objects. Since Forms are the objects of intellect and material objects are the
objects of perception, the metaphor often extends to talk of two quasispatially distinct realms: the sensible realm
and the intelligible realm.
Such talk, of course, reflects the sort of contrast between two sorts of beingthe perceptible and the intelligible
on which we have focused thus far. And the location of these two sorts of beings in two different realms
undoubtedly reflects (p. 207) some of Plato's own choices of image and language. In the Republic's analogy of
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the cave, for example, the intellectual ascent involved in turning one's attention from the perceptible to the
intelligible is depicted as a journey out of a cave to an environment outside. And the Phaedrus talks of the place
beyond heaven (247c3) as the location of truth. But there are questions as to what is the best way in which to
understand this sort of language and image.
One direction we should be careful to avoid being led is in the direction of talking as though Plato is somehow
committed to two different realities. Assuming that reality is what there iswhatever that turns out to bethen it is
hard to see that it makes any sense to talk of two realities; Plato's view, rather, should be understood as the view
that the deliverances of perception do not exhaust (and may in some way distort) the contents of reality. There
remain, however, two rather different ways to understand this view. On one, the view is that there is in reality what
we ordinarily think that there is (the perceptibles), but that there is, in addition, an aspect of reality besides what is
evident in perceptual experience and which is in various ways metaphysically explanatory of what is evident in
experience. On another, the view is that the evidence derived from perceptual experience in certain respects
distorts our understanding of what there is in reality, and that the reality discovered through rational inquiry
corrects or replaces aspects of what our experience suggests to us there is. On the first view, perceptibles and
intelligibles work in tandem, though in distinction from each other; on the second, perceptibles and intelligibles are
more like rivals.
The second view is more in line with the rationalist tradition antecedent to Plato, from which I began. On this view,
Plato (like Parmenides and Democritus before him) is best understood as proposing that it is only by using our
intellect, as opposed to our senses, that we will come to understand what there really is in the (single) world around
us, the world with which we are, indeed, in contact through perception, but about which perception to a greater or
lesser extent misinforms us. And, we may note, in the case of Democritus, for example, there is no parallel
temptation to talk of a distinct atomic realm. Of course, the prevalence of this temptation with regard to Plato may
be a reflection of (another) respect in which Plato differs from Democritus (one of many). But it may also be a
hazard arising from an overly literal interpretation of spatial imagery that is, in fact, designed to accentuate the
intelligibilityas opposed to the perceptibilityof Forms.
A second potential hazard of an overly literal reading of the talk of Forms as residing in some Platonic heaven is
the assumption that, if Forms are separate, as Aristotle suggested, they are therefore not immanent, not in the
things that have them. However, as Fine has argued, these matters are far from clear.43 Even if Plato does assume
that Forms are in some sense separatenot literally spatially, but in the sense of being capable of independent
existenceit is not at all clear that he concludes from this that Forms are not also in certain things. In the Phaedo,
presence (parousia, 100d5) is among the candidate relations that Socrates canvases (p. 208) for the relation
between participant and Form, and he is prepared to license inferences of the following sort:
When you then say that Simmias is larger than Socrates but smaller than Phaedo, do you not mean that
there is in Simmias both Largeness and Smallness? (102b35)
It is disputed whether, in this passage, Socrates has in mind that the Forms, Largeness and Smallness, are
themselves in Simmias, or whether there are, in addition to Forms, additional corresponding items, socalled
Immanent Forms or Immanent Characters, and it is one of these Immanent Forms or Characters that is, for example,
the Largeness in Simmias.44 On a credible reading of the passage, however, Forms do turn out to be items that can
be located.45 But they are not located off in some remote Platonic heaven; they are located where everything
else is, around here, sometimes in (at least some of) the things we see.46
VII. What, Metaphysically Speaking, Are Forms? And What, for That Matter, Are Particulars, the
Perceptible Counterparts to Forms?
Are Forms universal in character, or are Forms particular? That is, are Forms repeatable itemsnot only located,
but multiply located in many spaces and times in the things that have them in commonor are they unique and
nonrepeatable in character? Both views of the metaphysical character of Forms have been defended.47 On
balance, there seems to me reason to favor the view that Forms are universal in character. This is, in part,
because Forms appear to perform the central function that is typically adduced as the reason for introducing a
universal, the performance of which has some claim to be constitutive of being a universal; Forms underlie genuine
similarities in the character of things by being (in some (p. 209) way) common to them. But it does not follow from
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this that the Theory of Forms is itself a Theory of Universals. After all, it is not clear that their performing this
function, if they do, constitutes the central reason for their introduction as Forms, and performing this function is
not the sole function of Forms.
If, in the Theory of Forms, Plato were giving us a Theory of Universals, then he would, in all likelihood, be the first to
do so (and, indeed, he is cited as such by Armstrong,48 for example). One of the consequences of being the first
to offer a theory of the existence of a certain sort of metaphysical object is that the metaphysical terrain is not
already carved up in such a way that distinctions of the sort that might emerge from such a theory are readily
available to draw on. I argue that the distinction between universal and particular, understood as the distinction
between items that are repeatable and those that are not, is not, in fact, central to the contours of Plato's ontology
as he conceives them, if, that is, he would recognize the distinction at all. This fact may go some way toward
explaining why these two, as it seems to us, fundamentally different metaphysical characters, universal and
particular, have both seemed feasible in characterizations of Forms.
There are two main reasons to suppose that the distinction between universal and particular is not, in fact, central
to Plato's ontology (at least, not in his construction of the Theory of Forms). These two reasons complement each
other. The first is that Forms do not appear to be the only item in Plato's ontology that are universal in character, so
it would seem that, if he does think of Forms as being universal in character, this cannot be what he takes to be
especially distinctive of them. The second is that when Plato constructs the other to Forms, he does so in a way
that encompasses both items that are particular and items that are universal. By the other to Forms, I mean, of
course, not merely whatever is different from Forms but the items that are typically contrasted with Forms in
arguments centrally involving features of Formsthat is, in the type of argument that one might take to indicate
Plato's reasons for positing Forms (with the features proposed). Misleadingly, these other to Forms are often
referred to as particulars; Plato's particulars, however, are not all metaphysically particular, or so I argue.
I take the first reason first. In saying that Forms are not the only items in Plato's ontology that appear to be universal
in character, I follow an interpretation according to which, in talk of the perceptible counterparts to Forms, Plato at
least sometimes refers to perceptible universals. Consider, for example, the following central passage from
Republic book V:
(S) Now that these points have been established, I want to address a question to our friend who doesn't
believe in the beautiful itself or any form of the beautiful itself that remains the same in all respects but who
does believe in the many beautiful thingsthe lover of sights who won't allow anyone to say that the
beautiful is one or the just or any of the others; and let me ask him this: of these many beautiful things,
friend, is there one which will not also appear (p. 210) ugly? Or, of the many just, one which will not
appear unjust? Or, of the many things that are holy, one that will not appear unholy? (G) No, he said, rather
they must appear in some way both beautiful and ugly, and the same goes for the others you asked about.
(S) What about the many doubles? Do they appear less halves than doubles? (G) No. (S) And the many
large and small things, or light and heavy things, is any one of these any more whichever of these we say
it is than the opposite? (G) No, each will always be both. (S) Then is each of the many any more whatever
someone says it is than it is not? (478e7479b10)
According to the interpretation I follow, the items referred to here as, for example, the many beautifuls are
universal perceptible properties such as being brightly colored of the sort that might (erroneously, in Socrates'
view) be offered as a candidate explanation of the beauty of some perceptible beautiful object (a lithograph by
Mir, for example).49 Such properties are universal, insofar as they are themselves repeatable items. Many Mir
lithographs, for example, have in common being brightly colored. But they are clearly distinguished from Forms,
which are nonperceptible universals.50
This brings us on to the second reason for supposing that the distinction between universal and particular is not
central to Plato's ontology. For it is these very itemsthe perceptible universals of, for example, Republic book V
that turn out to be included in Plato's construction of the other to Forms. They are included in, but, in my view, do
not exclusively constitute the other to Forms, which elsewhere seems to include things that are metaphysically
particular in character. Consider, for example, a portion of the Phaedo passage quoted before:
But what about the many beautifuls, such as people or horses or clothing or any other things of this sort, or
about the equals, or about all those sharing a name with those things? Do they remain the same, or, in
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complete contrast to those others, do they, practically never in any way remain the same as themselves or
each other? (Phaedo 78d10e4)
Here again, we have mention of the many beautifuls. On this occasion, however, the expression would appear to
refer to metaphysically particular itemspeople, horses, clothing.51 Part of the difficulty is that Plato does not have
explicit terminology with which to mark the particularuniversal distinction, a fact which itself is grist to my mill.
Further, as we have seen, he is prepared to use the very same expressionthe many beautifuls, for example
for items on both sides of this metaphysical divide. Neither the lack of explicit terminology nor the indifferent use of
terminology across the division shows that Plato could not draw the distinction. But it does support my case that the
distinction, if he has it, is not (p. 211) central to his own conception of the contours of his ontology, nor to where
he puts the fault lines in his arguments about Forms.
Further, from the point of view of his theorizing, the heterogeneity apparent in Plato's construction of the other to
Forms has certain advantages. I focus on two. The first takes us back to some questions left outstanding in section
V above about the compresence of opposites. It is clear from the Republic V passage already quoted that
perceptible universals can take a prominent role in arguments involving compresence of opposites. I now argue
that, even when not directly referred to, it is the perceptible universals that do the lion's share of the philosophical
work involved in appeals to compresence.
While sometimes more nuanced, claims about the occurrence of the phenomenon of compresence of opposites
are sometimes put as the claim that all perceptibles (of the relevant sort) necessarily give rise to compresence of
opposites. Our Republic V passage has this tone.52 But what does this mean? Is it the claim (PC) that, for any
particular perceptible having some relevant feature, F, necessarily, that particular perceptible also has the
opposing feature unF? Or is it the claim (UC) that, for any perceptible type, a token of which is F, for some relevant
feature, necessarily that type has unF tokens also?
Plato would certainly be well advised not to commit himself to (PC) as stated, which seems an implausibly strong
claim. Could there not, for example, be an action that was just and that was not, in any respect, unjust?
We may make this point (and the force of (UC) more concrete) with an example exploiting the Phaedo's chosen
Formal exemplar, Equality. Consider the following (apparently reasonable) possibility that (PC) rules out. Imagine a
world in which there are exactly two objects that, as a matter of fact, are equal in every dimension. Ex hypothesi,
they are not unequal in any respect, contra (PC). However, just because these equalities of length, weight, and so
on involve specific lengths, weights, and so on, then clearly there could be an object to which these objects were
unequal, although, in fact, there is not.53
But what does it mean to say that there could be an object to which the equals of this world were unequal? One
aspect of the possibility in question is a possible object that does not, but could, exist in the actual world we're
considering. Call it U (for unequal). Another aspect relates to the objects that do exist in the actual world
considered in view of the possibility of U. It is this aspect that matters as far as the actual equals are concerned,
and this is their possible inequality to U (a possibility realized in all those worlds in which both they and U exist).
Such possible inequality to U must have some basis in some (actual) feature of the equal objects in every
(relevant) world, including the actual.54 But what this feature amounts to is just the claim that there is some type
that these equals instantiate, (p. 212) and that this type has equal and unequal tokens across the relevant
worlds.55 Once considered across worlds, then, it becomes easier to see that the possibility of compresence is
grounded in (UC). But any actual occurrence is possible and thus open to the same explanation. Both actual and
possible occurrences of compresence in perceptible particulars may thus be grounded in the occurrence of the
phenomenon at the level of types.
A second advantage of the heterogeneity of Plato's other to Forms is the effect it has on our understanding of
predicates, in particular as applied to their perceptible counterparts and to Forms. Given the existence and
pertinence of certain perceptible universals, metaphysically particular beautiful objectssuch as a lithograph by
Mirturn out often to be instances both of a perceptible universal (being brightly colored) and of a Form (the
Beautiful). They are not instances of the Form in virtue of being instances of the perceptible universal (because the
perceptible universal is vulnerable to compresence). And this leaves open how we should understand the relation
between the particular's instantiation of the perceptible universal (its bright color) and its instantiation of the Form
(beauty). This question approaches, albeit somewhat indirectly, one of the most controversial features of Plato's
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Theory of Forms: selfpredication.
Selfpredication is the view that a Form can in some sense be predicated of itself: that the Form of Beauty can have
the predicate beautiful applied to it. Selfpredication might occur in certain specific cases without being a matter
of theory. For example, if every Form is one and if there is a Form, One, then this Form selfpredicates. The
interesting question, however, is whether Forms selfpredicate systematically and as a matter of theory. And there
are grounds for thinking they do. Consider, for example, the following passage from the Phaedo:
Consider, then, he said, whether you share my opinion as to what follows, for I think that, if there is
anything beautiful besides the Beautiful itself, it is beautiful for no other reason than that it shares in that
Beautiful, and I say so with everything. Do you agree to this sort of cause? (Phaedo 100c27)
Since this passage assumes that the Beautiful itself is beautifuland goes on to make a claim about what must be
true about anything besides the Form that counts as beautifulwe have here a pretty clear statement of self
predication in what looks to be a sample case: the Form, the Beautiful itself, is beautiful. Further, it is sometimes
thought that the theory of causal responsibility that Socrates is here in the process of developing and illustrating
requires that a cause resemble its effect in the relevant causal respect.56 This would provide a theoretical
motivation for (p. 213) systematic selfpredication. Notoriously, selfpredication plays some central role in the so
called Third Man Argument at Parmenides 132a1b2.57
If there are good grounds for supposing that Forms selfpredicate, it is nevertheless hard to deny the apparent
absurdity of some pictures of how this would work. (No doubt, this is one reason that, among Parmenides
interpreters, selfpredication is high on the list of targets for attitudes to Forms to be repudiated or revised.)58 The
apparent absurdity is brought out nicely by Fine: selfpredication would have the consequence that the form of
White (if there is one) is coloured white; the form of dog (if there is one) can scratch its ears.59 And, lest we think
absurdity occurs only in cases where it is disputable whether there are Forms, consider two very clearly
evidenced Forms, the Large and the Small. Is the Large some massive object? And how small would the Form of
Small have to be?60
The absurdity arises on what Fine describes as Narrow SelfPredication, the view that the Form of F is F in
roughly the same way in which F sensibles are F.61 This is probably why attempts to rescue (or revise) self
predication have focused on identifying some different way in which the Form is F. Without rejecting this strategy,
I want to suggest that we should have in mind a question about the way in which perceptible Fs are F, Forms aside.
Think once again about my lithograph, a perceptible beautiful (metaphysically particular) object. It is an instance
both of a perceptible universal (being brightly colored) and of a Form (the Beautiful). But it is not an instance of the
Form in virtue of being an instance of the perceptible universal (because the perceptible universal is vulnerable to
compresence). Being brightly colored cannot be the explanation of my lithograph's beauty, because these same
bright colors have ugly instances (such as the sweater I bought, but never wear). Not only that: many cases of
beauty will not be brightly coloredin the case of beautiful souls or beautiful theories, for example, the beautiful
items in question will not be colored at all. But Plato is committed to the view that an explanation of beauty must be
capable of covering all cases.62 Bright coloration, then, is at most coextensive with some cases of beauty. But this
would appear to leave it an open question how, if at all, the beauty of my lithograph relates to its being an instance
of this perceptible universal? The (salient) perceptible features of my lithograph could be either (a) in no way
constitutive of the beauty of my lithograph or at least (b) not constitutive of it in any way that invites the drawing of
the absurd parallel when it comes to (p. 214) considering the way of being beautiful that applies to the Form. Self
predication might be defended from evident absurdity, that is, by supposing that the basis for the application of
predicates to perceptible particulars is already somewhat different from what we might have been ordinarily
inclined to think. Indeed, I take this to be one way to understand the claim that Socrates makes at Phaedo 100c
(quoted above).
Finally, therefore, this raises a question about the perceptibility of the properties corresponding to Forms. In
adjudicating between the two options regarding my lithograph presented above, we may be concerned about
proving too much. It proves too much, one might think, if the beauty of my lithograph turns out to be
nonperceptible, just like the Form. Or perhaps this is not too much. After all, if Forms are immanent, the beauty of
my lithograph is brought about by the presence of the nonperceptible Form of Beauty within it. This issue has
arisen, indirectly, more than once over the course of my discussion. Take, for example, some particular beautiful
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human being. This is a metaphysically particular object that I can directly perceive. In some sense, I can directly
perceive it as human and as beautiful. But it seems to me far from clear whether, on Plato's view, I can directly
perceive its humanity or its beauty. While it may seem unsatisfactory for me not to be able to answer this question,
it does have the merit of being consistent with the emphasis of my overall theme: Plato as metaphysician for whom
the fact that Forms are intelligible rather than perceptible is the primary point of focus, and who, in positing Forms,
is concerned to argue that many aspects of the (single, local) world that appears to us in perception are not in
reality how they appear.63
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Harte, Verity (2002) Plato on Parts and Wholes: The Metaphysics of Structure (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
Irwin, T. H. (1977) Plato's Heracleiteanism, Philosophical Quarterly 27, 113.
Irwin, T. H. (1999) The Theory of Forms, in Fine 1999a, 14370.
Kahn, C. H. (1996) Plato and the Socratic Dialogue: The Philosophical Use of a Literary Form (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press).
Kahn, C. H. (2007) Why Is the Sophist a Sequel to the Theaetetus? Phronesis 52, 3357.
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16, ed. J. J. Cleary and G. M. Gurtler (Leiden: Brill), 91121.
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Kraut, R., ed. (1992) The Cambridge Companion to Plato (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Long, A. A., ed. (1999) The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press).
Makin, S. (1990) An Ancient Principle about Causation, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 91, 13552.
McCabe, Mary Margaret (1994) Plato's Individuals (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press).
McCabe, Mary Margaret (2000) Plato and His Predecessors (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
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17.
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Notes:
(1.) There has also, it's fair to say, been rather less discussion of these topics in the literature on Plato generally.
However, on composition, see my discussion in Harte 2002; on time and space, see Algra 1995, Owen 1966a,
Sorabji 1983 and 1988; on personal identity, see Bostock 1999, Gallop 1982, Gerson 2003, Gill 1996, McCabe
1994, ch. 9, and 2000; on the existence and nature of god(s), see Menn 1995, Morgan 1992.
(2.) For a sophisticated treatment of Plato's relations to Parmenides, see Palmer 1999.
(3.) See, for example, Phaedo 65d13, 66a3.
(4.) For an introduction to Parmenides and Democritus, see Long 1999, chs. 6 and 9.
(5.) This, if anything is, is a point on which there is now broad consensus, although this has not always been the
case: see Natorp 2004.
(6.) Again, there is now broad consensus that Plato is not skeptical about the possibility of knowledge. In antiquity,
however, there was a longstanding tradition of skeptical readings of Plato, on the history of which, see Brittain
2001.
(7.) For example, consider the doubts expressed in Annas 1981, ch. 9.
(8.) Contrast, for example, Ryle 1966 and Owen 1953 and 1966b with Kahn 2007; and see Peterson, chapter 16 in
this volume.
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(9.) I choose causal responsibility as the least misleading translation of the Greek terms under discussion in this
passage of the Phaedo: the adjective aitios and the noun aitia. For discussion of the terminology, see Frede 1980,
and for the notion in Plato, see Sedley 1998.
(10.) See Phaedo 102b11, Republic X 596a79, Parmenides 130e5131a2. Passages like these have sometimes
led people to think that Platonic Forms are meanings; see Bostock 1986. See also Crivelli, chapter 9 in this volume.
(11.) See Phaedo 73b76e and Republic 476a480a. I take no stand here on the controversial question of whether,
especially in this Republic passage, Forms are assumed to be the only objects of knowledge. Contrast Annas 1981,
ch. 8, and Fine 1978 and 1990; see also Taylor, chapter 7 in this volume.
(12.) For this understanding of his reasoning and its significance, see McCabe 1994, 7881.
(13.) Arguments for the existence of Forms can be found in Aristotle's On Ideas, together with his criticisms of them.
See Fine 1993.
(14.) On the terminology, see Motte et al. 2003.
(15.) The dialogues of definition I have in mind are Euthyphro, Charmides, Laches, Lysis, and Hippias Major;
Republic I and Theaetetus share the general form but for different reasons do not naturally go with this group
Republic I because it opens the Republic; Theaetetus because it is generally viewed as a later return to the form
and is much more elaborate. Not all the works that would typically be identified as early works are dialogues of
definition; to name just two examples, the Apology and Crito are not works of this type.
(16.) On the idea of Socratic Forms in contrast to Platonic Forms and the possible relations between them,
contrast Vlastos 1991, Irwin 1999, and Penner 1987.
(17.) Kahn 1996.
(18.) In the case of the Timaeus, this dating has been disputed, however, by Owen 1953, precisely on grounds
related to questions concerning the developments in Plato's attitude to Forms. Contrast Cherniss 1957.
(19.) For the view that Plato abandons Forms in light of the Parmenides' criticisms, see, for example, Owen 1953
and 1966b. For an alternative, more unitarian approach to Plato's treatment of Forms, postParmenides, see now
Kahn 2007.
(20.) Translations of Plato here and elsewhere are taken from or take as a starting point those in Cooper 1997,
although in some cases I have modified them more or less extensively.
(21.) The passage does not refer to the items mentioned as Forms, but it seems clear that this is what they are.
(22.) Are these contraries or contradictories? The examples suggest that opposing Forms are contraries, not
contradictories, but whether this distinction is observed throughout is unclear.
(23.) This feature of Forms is central to the contrast between Forms and their perceptible counterparts, which I
consider in detail below.
(24.) Annas 1981, ch. 9.
(25.) So Annas (ibid.).
(26.) Annas (ibid.) remarks on the unusual context; for the salience of couches and tables to this context, see
Burnyeat 1999, 23236.
(27.) For the evidence and discussion, see Fine 1993, ch. 6. This same external evidence would not restrict Forms
to opposites, however, since it would include Forms of natural kinds.
(28.) Phaedo 104d17 is the best evidence that Three, and so, arguably, by analogy, Fire, Snow, and so on, are
indeed Forms, but it is not indisputable. The Timaeus does provide unequivocal evidence as to the existence of a
Form of Fire (see especially 51b7d3), but the Timaeus is an unusual work in many respects and, as I have said,
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one whose dating has been controversial in light of views about the ways in which Plato's views about Forms
develop.
(29.) Smith 1917; translation put together from pp. 7071.
(30.) A now classic discussion of these questions is Irwin 1977. See also Irwin 1999.
(31.) For the contrast, see Nehamas 1975.
(32.) For Approximation, see, for example, Ross 1951; for Compresence, see, for example, Nehamas 1975 and
Irwin 1977, 1999.
(33.) Perhaps this might be doubted, if one thinks that Formal pairs of opposites are contraries (see n. 22 above).
The reference to inequality at Phaedo 74c2, identified using the abstract noun anisots, might be taken as
evidence for a Form of Unequal.
(34.) For recent discussion of this vexed passage, see Sedley 2007.
(35.) This problem arises on the Compresence of Opposites View of the imperfection of Forms' perceptible
counterparts, but it is not clear that we would be in a much better position if we, instead, adopted the
Approximation View of their imperfection, for it seems at least less obvious what would be meant by the claim that
perceptibles approximate nonoppositional features such as humanity, for example, than that they do so for
oppositional features such as equality or beauty.
(36.) For indications of this sort of strategy, see Fine 1993, 100101.
(37.) This strategy has recently been defended by Sedley 2006.
(38.) For this view in Aristotle, see De Interpretatione 3, 16b1115 and Categories 10, 13b1419.
(39.) I set aside the complications raised by questions about the possible humanity of Socrates' putatively immortal
soul.
(40.) Note that the dual contrast will be further complicated, as the Timaeus proceeds, by the introduction of the
receptacle. See, for example, 50c7d2, 51e652b5.
(41.) Frede 1988. See also response by Code 1988.
(42.) See, for example, the entry on Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Theory_of_Forms&oldid=73131620%Wikipedia.
(43.) Fine 1984 and 1986. Contrast Devereux 1994.
(44.) Contrast Fine 1986 and Vlastos 1969.
(45.) Does the idea of their being located call into question their immaterial character? No: no more than does the
claim that the immaterial soul is to be foundat least some of the timein a body.
(46.) Sometimes: if Forms' capacity for independent existence includes (or amounts to) the capacity to exist
even if no perceptibles participate in them, then Forms need not always be located in some perceptible object(s).
But it does not follow from this that they areas well or insteadin some alternative location, a Platonic heaven; it
may be that in this case they exist without any specific location(s).
(47.) For the view that Forms are universals, see, for example, Fine 1993; for the view that Forms are particulars,
see, for example, Geach 1956 (at least implicitly); yet another view is that Forms are best understood as something
like chemical elements, for which, see Denyer 1983.
(48.) D. M. Armstrong in his entry on universals in Kim and Sosa 1995, 502.
(49.) For this reading, see Gosling 1960 and compare Irwin 1977 and Fine 1993. For doubts, see Silverman 2002,
ch. 4.
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Plato's Metaphysics
(50.) Or: nonsensible universals. So, for example, Fine 1993.
(51.) But, contrast here, Irwin 1977.
(52.) The sometimes of Phaedo 74b8 may be an example of nuance.
(53.) The advisability of stepping down to a modal claim about (particular) compresence is noted in Kelsey 2000,
105 (where the thought is attributed to Sarah Broadie, n.26).
(54.) The domain of worlds must be fixed to those in which the equal objects (or their counterparts) exist and where
all relevant dimensions bearing on their equality in the actual world are constant.
(55.) The argument proceeds on the assumption that (at least in some cases) compresent opposite properties are
attributed on the basis of one and the same feature of the object(s) in question. The case of Simmias, who, while
remaining the same in height, can be viewed as large in relation to Socrates and small in relation to Simmias is of
this type.
(56.) See Sedley 1998; for discussion of the causal principle itself, see Makin 1990.
(57.) This was originally brought out by Vlastos 1954 and has been the subject of much discussion; see, among
many others, Meinwald 1992, Peterson 1973, Sedley 1998.
(58.) This is the strategy of Meinwald 1992, for example.
(59.) Fine 1992, 25. And see discussion of selfpredication in Peterson, chapter 16 in this volume.
(60.) This sort of picture is only encouragedto its discreditby the Approximation View of imperfection, rejected
in section V above.
(61.) Fine 1992, 25.
(62.) At least he often appears so committed, although it is not clear how well this would work in the case of the
more subtle forms of explanation endorsed in Phaedo 105b ff., for while it may be the case that, for example,
fever, when present in a body, always makes it sick, it is far less clear that whenever a body is sick, fever is
present.
(63.) For helpful discussion of the issues and/or comments on drafts of this essay, I am grateful to the editor, Gail
Fine, and to Ursula Coope, Melissa Lane, M. M. McCabe, and Dominic Scott.
Verity Harte
Verity Harte is Professor of Philosophy and Classics at Yale University and Honorary Research Professor in Philosophy, King's
College London. She is the author of Plato on Parts and Wholes: The Metaphysics of Structure (Clarendon, 2002) and of various
articles on Greek philosophy.
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Subject: Philosophy, Classical Philosophy, Metaphysics

Abstract and Keywords

I. Identifying Our Topic

III. The Language of Forms

IV. What Forms Are There?

V. How, in General, Are Forms Characterized?

VI. Where Are Forms?

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