Editing Plato (section)

=== The Forms ===
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{{See also|Theory of forms|l1=Plato's theory of Forms}}
In the dialogues Socrates regularly asks for the meaning of a general term (e. g. justice, truth, beauty), and criticizes those who instead give him particular examples, rather than the quality shared by all examples. "Platonism" and its theory of Forms (also known as 'theory of Ideas') denies the reality of the material world, considering it only an image or copy of the real world. According to this theory of Forms, there are these two kinds of things: the apparent world of material objects grasped by the senses, which constantly changes, and an unchanging and unseen world of Forms, grasped by reason ({{lang|grc|λογική}}). Plato's Forms represent [[Type (metaphysics)|types]] of things, as well as [[property (metaphysics)|properties]], patterns, and [[Relations (philosophy)|relations]], which are referred to as objects. Just as individual tables, chairs, and cars refer to objects in this world, 'tableness', 'chairness', and 'carness', as well as e.g. [[justice]], [[truth]], and [[beauty]] refer to objects in another world. One of Plato's most cited examples for the Forms were the truths of [[geometry]], such as the [[Pythagorean theorem]]. The theory of Forms is first introduced in the ''[[Phaedo]]'' dialogue (also known as ''On the Soul''), wherein Socrates disputes the [[Pluralism (philosophy)|pluralism]] of [[Anaxagoras]], then the most popular response to Heraclitus and Parmenides.