Plato is rightfully considered one of the most outstanding philosophers in the history of mankind. As the son of an aristocrat and student of Socrates, he, according to his brother Diogenes Laertius, was able to create a synthesis of the theories of Heraclitus, Pythagoras and Socrates - that is, all those wise men that ancient Hellas was proud of. Plato's original doctrine of ideas is the starting point and central point of all the work of the philosopher. During his life, he wrote 34 dialogues, and in all this theory is described or mentioned in one way or another. It permeated the whole philosophy of Plato. The doctrine of ideas can be divided into three stages of formation.
The first of these is the time after the death of Socrates. Then the philosopher tried to explain the theories of his teacher, and in such dialogues as “Symposion” and “Criton”, the concept of the idea of absolute Good and Beauty first appears. The second stage is the life of Plato in Sicily. There he was influenced by the Pythagorean school and clearly articulated his "objective idealism." And finally, the third stage is the final one. Then Plato’s doctrine of ideas acquired a completed character and a clear structure, became the way we now know it.
In the already mentioned dialogue “Symposion”, or “Feast, ” the philosopher, using the example of Socrates’s speeches, describes in detail how the idea (or essence) of beauty can be better and truer than its incarnations. It was there that he first expressed the idea that the world of things and sensory phenomena was not real. After all, the objects that we see, feel, try, are never the same. They are constantly changing, appearing and dying. But they exist due to the fact that in all of them there is something from a higher, true world. This other dimension consists of incorporeal prototypes. Plato's doctrine of ideas calls them eidos.
They never change, never die and are not born. They are eternal, and therefore their existence is true. They do not depend on anything, neither on space, nor on time, and do not obey anything. These types are simultaneously the cause, essence and purpose of things in our world. In addition, they represent some patterns by which objects and phenomena visible to us were created. And all beings with a soul strive into this world of true existence, where there is neither evil nor death.
Therefore, Plato’s doctrine of ideas calls eidos at the same time goals.
This true world opposes our “lower” one not only as a copy of the original or essence of the phenomenon. It also has a moral division - into good and evil. After all, all eidos also have one source, just like our things originate in ideas. Such a prototype, which gave rise to other causes and goals, is the Absolute. This is the idea of the Good. It alone is the root cause of not only goodness, but also beauty and harmony. She is faceless and stands above everything, including God. She crowns the whole pyramid of ideas. The creator god represents a personal, lower beginning in the Platonic system, although he is very close to the main eidos of the Good.
This idea itself is an eternal and transcendental unity with respect to our world. It creates (through the creator God) the kingdom of eidos, true being. Ideas create a "world of souls." It is still included in the system of true being, although it occupies its lower level. Even lower is the imaginary existence, the world of things. And the last step is occupied by matter, which is essentially non-being. All in integrity, this system is a pyramid of existence. This is the doctrine of the ideas of Plato, summarized in this article.
