What are platonic concepts?
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The platonic form of a thing is a kind of abstract “essence” of that thing. The things you interact with are visible versions of that platonic form.
Plato argues that these platonic forms are real, and are in fact the only real versions, since the ones you can see and touch are temporary.
I have a chair in my house, before it was a chair, it was a tree, and when it breaks, it’ll become firewood, and then it’ll become ashes. The platonic form of chairs have always and will always exist, my chair, has not and will not.
In this view, when someone “invents” a new thing, they actually just discovered it and gave it a name. According to Plato, it always existed in this platonic form, just waiting for us to stumble upon it.
Edit: Quick not about “real”. Plato wouldn’t say that my chair isn’t real, but he would argue that it’s not a chair, it’s something that, at this time, has the properties of a chair.
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