Knowra Platonic realism Platonic realism Platonic realism holds that abstract Forms exist independently of minds and particular things. Particular things participate in Forms, possessing their properties imperfectly.
Theory of Forms : Plato’s account of eternal, intelligible Forms that particular things imitate or participate in. This is the central account of Forms that Platonic realism interprets as a claim about independent existence.
Nominalism : The view that general terms do not name independently existing universals. Nominalism rejects the independent universals that Platonic realism affirms.
Plato : An ancient Greek philosopher whose dialogues shaped Western metaphysics and epistemology. His dialogues provide the primary source for the Forms that define Platonic realism.
Plotinus : A third-century Greek-speaking philosopher who founded Neoplatonism. He developed Plato’s intelligible reality into a metaphysical hierarchy centered on the One and Intellect.
Mathematical Platonism : The view that mathematical objects exist independently of human minds and mathematical practice. It applies Platonic realism to numbers, sets, and other mathematical objects.
Universals : Repeatable properties or relations that can be instantiated by multiple particular things. Platonic Forms are a realist account of universals, treated as independent of their instances.
Conceptualism : The view that universals exist as concepts in minds rather than independently of them. It locates universals in thought, unlike Platonic realism’s mind-independent Forms.
Republic (Plato) : A dialogue by Plato on justice, education, politics, and the nature of knowledge. Its Sun, Divided Line, and Cave analogies connect knowledge of Forms with philosophical understanding.
Augustine of Hippo : A Christian theologian and philosopher whose works shaped Latin Christian thought. He adapted eternal Forms as divine ideas existing in God’s mind.
Problem of universals : The metaphysical problem of explaining how distinct things can share the same property or kind. Platonic realism answers by positing independently existing universals that particulars share.
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