ABSTRACT
The reader who wants to study Forms more closely should supplement the Republic with passages in the Symposium (210e–212a) and Phaedo (74a–75d, 100b–106e). Their more direct presentations help one return to the Republic with a better sense of what Plato is up to. After the Republic every reader ought to consult the first pages of the Parmenides (128e–135d), in which Plato criticizes his own theory. For in the process of criticizing the theory, the Parmenides (in that initial discussion) is often refreshingly direct about what Forms can and cannot mean.
