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Aristotle's Theory Of Forms Essay

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Aristotle borrowed the notion of a form from Plato. As principle of structure, forms existed for Aristotle only if they actually structured something.
Plato also taught that the material things of this world have the natures they have because they “participate” in the Forms, which are principles of structure.
Aristotle makes the claim that Platonic ideas are useless for explaining “coming to be,” or how and why things exist (p. 291). He specifically mentions the theory of “forms” which Plato introduced in his text, The Republic. Aristotle then proposes his own theory of forms, which is quite different from Plato’s. Though both philosophers have carefully constructed theories about forms, the best definition of a form ends up being a combination …show more content…

Aristotle countered Plato’s ideas by saying that forms without matter could not be “something definite;” they could not actually, physically exist. Plato never claimed that forms were anything “definite,” though. In fact, he specifically said that forms reside in the “intelligible realm.” If we take Plato’s intelligible realm to be not some parallel universe that the perfect forms of everything reside in, but rather the realm of our own thoughts and ideas, then in a way both philosophers are correct. As Aristotle said, form cannot really exist without matter. There is no “house apart from bricks.” However, the ideas of things can be thought of and talked about because we have a mutual understanding of the forms of objects and ideas. This seems to be what Plato really meant when he described forms. Students of geometry can discuss squares with perfectly equal sides and right angles, even if they cannot draw a perfect square, because they all understand the form of a square.
Both Plato and Aristotle present carefully thought out arguments regarding the nature of forms in objects is often the case with two opposing viewpoints that the best solution is some combination of the two, and this may be true for the question of forms. Although it is true that forms do not exist without matter in the physical world, having an understanding of forms as perfect conceptions of things we find in the physical world may be necessary for understanding and talking about the world around

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