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The Theory of Forms or Theory of Ideas, [1] [2] [3] also known as Platonic idealism or Platonic realism, is a philosophical theory widely credited to the Classical Greek philosopher Plato. A major concept in metaphysics , the theory suggests that the physical world is not as real or true as Forms.
Plato holding his Timaeus, detail from the Vatican fresco The School of Athens The primary concept is the Theory of Forms . The only true being is founded upon the forms, the eternal, unchangeable, perfect types, of which particular objects of moral and responsible sense are imperfect copies.
Platonic realism (also called extreme realism" [33] [34] or exaggerated realism) [35] [36] is the view that universals or forms in this sense, are the causal explanation behind the notion of what things exactly are; (the view that universals are real entities existing independent of particulars).
Set-theoretic realism (also set-theoretic Platonism) [3] a position defended by Penelope Maddy, is the view that set theory is about a single universe of sets. [4] This position (which is also known as naturalized Platonism because it is a naturalized version of mathematical Platonism) has been criticized by Mark Balaguer on the basis of Paul ...
According to Benacerraf, the philosophical ramifications of this identification problem result in Platonic approaches failing the ontological test. [1] The argument is used to demonstrate the impossibility for Platonism to reduce numbers to sets and reveal the existence of abstract objects.
Philosophical realism—usually not treated as a position of its own but as a stance towards other subject matters—is the view that a certain kind of thing (ranging widely from abstract objects like numbers to moral statements to the physical world itself) has mind-independent existence, i.e. that it exists even in the absence of any mind perceiving it or that its existence is not just a ...
Platonic realism asserts that universals have objective existence, while conceptualism maintains that universals exist only in the mind, and nominalism denies their existence altogether. Similar disputes pertain to mathematical objects , unobservable objects assumed by scientific theories, and moral facts .
Platonic realism presupposes that there can be abstracta (if by 'abstracta' we merely mean 'things transcending the sensible world'); the real substance of the doctrine is that the important class of abstracta is the cause for all properties, and it is realism about this independent-cause-for-properties that is denoted by 'Platonic realism'.