Catálogo de publicaciones - revistas

<jats:p>When the theory of Forms was first developed by Plato, it was the final stage of a series of philosophical investigations which began with Socrates' search for definitions. The Form was regarded as a ‘one over many’ that is separate from particulars. It is by their participation in the perfect Form that the particulars derive their transitory existence. There is a Form, according to the <jats:italic>Republic</jats:italic> (596 a 5–7) corresponding to every set of things that have a common name. There are Forms of moral qualities, mathematical entities, and material objects. In the <jats:italic>Parmenides</jats:italic> Socrates admits that he is in doubt whether there are Forms of Man, Fire, and Water (130 c), but by the time of the <jats:italic>Timaeus</jats:italic> (51 b) Plato has no doubts about Forms of the four elements, and in the Philebus (15 a) he accepted a Form of Man also. This fact is well known to Aristotle, who speaks of Man as a typical Form at <jats:italic>E.N.</jats:italic> 1096<jats:sup>b</jats:sup>1. Finally, we may add that regress arguments, such as that about the Form of Largeness at <jats:italic>Parmenides</jats:italic> 132 ab, were generally referred to in antiquity as Third Man arguments—arguments, that is, which used the Form of Man as a paradigm for Forms in general.</jats:p>