Plato's Introduction of Forms

R.M. Dancy explains the Theory of Forms of the Phaedo and Symposium as the outgrowth of the quest for definitions canvassed in the Socratic dialogues. He, therefore, constructs a Theory of Definition for the Socratic dialogues based on the refutations of definitions in those dialogues, and shows how that theory is mirrored in the Theory of Forms. His discussion ranges in detail over a number of Plato's early and middle dialogues, and will be of interest to readers in Plato studies and in ancient philosophy more generally.

R. M. Dancy is Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University. He is the author of Sense and Contradiction: A Study in Aristotle (1977) and Two Studies in the Early Academy (1991) and editor of Kant and Critique (1993).