ABSTRACT

Plato was not really interested in the Forms of objects like beds or, indeed, animals like cats. What concerned Plato were concepts such as beauty, truth, justice and the Good. Plato observed that concepts like beauty may be applied to many different objects. A flower and a person can both in some way reveal what beauty is. However, they are clearly not the whole story or definition of what beauty is because other things such as landscapes, actions and paintings can be beautiful. This led Plato to suggest that underlying all these images and examples of beauty is the real Form of beauty, to which these things correspond to a greater or lesser extent.