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 6 - Why are essences, or Forms, the basis of all causation and explanation?
Phaedo 95–105
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
It is familiar that, in Phaedo 95e ff., Plato argues that causation requires Forms and that Forms are causes. According to the standard and mainstream view, Plato’s argument for this view relies on the view that Forms are self-predicative (i.e., the Form of F is itself F) and that the cause transmits its character to the effect. The chapter demonstrates that Plato’s argument depends on neither of these views. It shows that what the argument relies on is the view that, first, Forms are essences (i.e,. the Form of F is what it is to be F), and, secondly, causation/explanation is uniform (i.e., same cause if, and only if, same effect).
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- Information
- Plato's EssentialismReinterpreting the Theory of Forms, pp. 110 - 146Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021