Is there a list of Plato's Forms?

Question

This question is about Plato's Theory of Forms. I know 'Good' is a Form, but what are some of the others? Was there ever a list of all the forms? Or are there infinitely many?

Answer 1

There is no list per se by Plato. He believed all ideas -abstract ideas - had real existence as perfect forms in an immaterial world apart from our physical perceptions. These ideas were both mundane and sacred. Individual examples of these perfect forms are found in the physical world if you know how to see past or rather decode the veil of perception by educating the reason esp by becoming a wise person, a philosopher. (both topics are found in Plato's Cave analogy and The Republic) Some of the greatest ideas which mattered most to Plato, and many subsequent rationalist(as opposed to empiricist) philosophers are the universal ideals named  Good, Truth, Beauty & Reason. These kinds of universal ideas are exemplified in human thought and action.

"Plato's Theory of Forms[1] asserts that Forms (or Ideas), and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality.[2] Plato spoke of forms (sometimes capitalized in translations: The Forms)[3] in formulating his solution to the problem of universals."

ref:excerpt from----> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forms

Though common nouns like 'dog' and 'bird', and adjectives like 'red' and 'straight' are mundane universals/concepts, he believed the examples of these, had been derived from some perfect form existing outside of our reality. Aristotle, Plato's greatest student, refuted that belief. Plato's belief about the perfect ideas was taken to extreme by Plotinus and other neoplatonists.

Answer 2

Hey--if there was a list of all the Forms there would have to be a Form for that list. Would that form be part of the list or outside the list?

Answer 3

There is no list. A form is the idea that defines what something is, such as a horse or a chair. Anything non-specific that you can think of is a form. Abstract ideas like "justice" are also forms.