Book contents
- Plato’s Essentialism
- Plato’s Essentialism
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Why cannot the ti esti question be answered by example and exemplar?
- Chapter 2 Why cannot essences, or Forms, be perceived by the senses?
- Chapter 3 Why are essences, or Forms, unitary, uniform and non-composite? Why are they changeless? Eternal? Are they logically independent of each other?
- Chapter 4 The relation between knowledge and enquiry in the Phaedo
- Chapter 5 Why are essences, or Forms, distinct from sense-perceptible things?
- Chapter 6 Why are essences, or Forms, the basis of all causation and explanation?
- Chapter 7 What is the role of essences, or Forms, in judgements about sense-perceptible and physical things?
- Chapter 8 Why does thinking of things require essences, or Forms?
- Chapter 9 Why are essences, or Forms, separate from physical things?
- Chapter 10 What yokes together mind and world?
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- General Index
- Index Locorum
Chapter 9 - Why are essences, or Forms, separate from physical things?
Also Timaeus and Philebus
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 June 2021
- Plato’s Essentialism
- Plato’s Essentialism
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Why cannot the ti esti question be answered by example and exemplar?
- Chapter 2 Why cannot essences, or Forms, be perceived by the senses?
- Chapter 3 Why are essences, or Forms, unitary, uniform and non-composite? Why are they changeless? Eternal? Are they logically independent of each other?
- Chapter 4 The relation between knowledge and enquiry in the Phaedo
- Chapter 5 Why are essences, or Forms, distinct from sense-perceptible things?
- Chapter 6 Why are essences, or Forms, the basis of all causation and explanation?
- Chapter 7 What is the role of essences, or Forms, in judgements about sense-perceptible and physical things?
- Chapter 8 Why does thinking of things require essences, or Forms?
- Chapter 9 Why are essences, or Forms, separate from physical things?
- Chapter 10 What yokes together mind and world?
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- General Index
- Index Locorum
Summary
The chapter considers why, and in what sense, Plato thinks that Forms are separate from sense-perceptible things. It argues that the notion of separation Plato operates with is not a purely modal notion, but rather, an essentialist notion: A is separate from B, if, and only if, What A is makes no reference to B, but what B is makes reference to A. It demonstrates that, for Plato, Forms are, in this sense, separate from sense-perceptible things, because what the primary Forms are, such as oneness or likeness, does not have to make reference to sense-perceptible things.
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- Plato's EssentialismReinterpreting the Theory of Forms, pp. 202 - 223Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021