The World of the forms is a myth made up by Plato. Discuss.

It could be argued that many cultures although have different habits and traditions then others, all of them share the ‘forms.’ These include the concepts of justice beauty, love etc. Thus supporting the view that the world of the forms is not a myth.

However, those who think that Plato’s world of the forms is a myth would argue that, various cultures have different understandings and traditions i.e. Justice in Saudi Arabia is very different to ours with things like cutting off peoples hands for stealing.

On the other hand according to Crito, recollection is different in some cultures that are close to the forms. He came to this conclusion when he made his slave boy do a maths problem of which he solves, so Crito believed that this showed that even without being taught the boy some how already new, probably through recollection of previously knowing. Therefore this shows is some evidence for Plato’s design argument.  

Aristotle put forward a criticism of the theory of Forms he said that what if there is a man who is a copy of the Form of the man. What is the origin of the Form of man? How many is that? Aristotle was saying that a copy of a form could turn out to be an infinite series that never stopped, this would makes the Theory of Forms meaningless as a way of explaining the ultimate origin of concepts such as the Good, truth and justice.  

On both sides there appears to be some sort of persuasive argument however, I do feel that Plato’s world of the forms does seem to be just a theory as it does not cover all situations ( i.e. different cultures).