A Distinction in Plato's "Sophist"

Abstract

The fundamental objection to the theory of forms, as recognized both by aristotle and plato himself in the "parmenides", is that forms need to be separate from the sensible world and yet in some way present in it. This appears to be impossible. In the "sophist" plato begins to formulate an answer to this objection which consists in a distinction of a form and its nature, the latter bearing a strong resemblance to what later came to be called a 'common nature'.