(Please note that these are the just notes. I have decided not to try and reason out my notes into an actual essay. If you dont understand anything then I will be happy to discuss these ideas further. Happy reading! Ohh and don't worry, I am not mentioning God this time.)
Plato...
For those uneducated in the founding of western philosophy: Plato was the student of Socretes and the teacher of Aristotle. It's quite amazing to think that the three fathers of philosophy came from Athens, at about the same time and were all students of each other!
One of Plato's theories was the Theory of Forms. He basically believed there was a great divide in reality.
Forms: The ideal archetypes that exist alternate to our physical world. Forms abstract conception.
Something material/physical, i.e a dog, is what it is because it participates in the form of the thing... i.e the form of the archetypical dog. As for dog, there is an ideal archetypical form of human that we all participate in or imitate. All things in material/physical world are imperfect and are only imitations of the true form. Everything particapates in different forms simultaneously, i.e the dog will participate in the form of a dog, form of unification, form of existence, form of it's breed, form of male or female etc.
The Form "world" which exists equivelant to ours, not as a place or in any position, is a realm of Being. It is Eternal and Unchanging and Perfect.
The Material/Physical world is a realm of Becoming. It is Finite, it is constantly changing and it is Imperfect.
(Bare in mind that the Forms are hierarchical, and that the Ultimate form is the Form of Good.)
So then finally, Plato, unlike Socretes and Aristotle (and most philosophers and public in the world) says that the Realm of Being, or the World of Forms, is what is real. And that the Physical and Material world is just a dark shadow, an imitation or participation, of reality. So to Plato, reality is the exact opposite of what we perceive it to be.
Thanks again for listening to my ramblings.
Luke