foreknowledge, divine See DIVINE FOREKNOWL -. EDG. form, in metaphysics, especially Plato’s and Aristotle’s, the structure or essence of a thing as contrasted with its matter. (1) Plato’s theory of Forms is a realistic ontology of universals. In his elenchus, Socrates sought what is common to, e.g., all chairs. Plato believed there must be an essence – or Form – common to everything falling under one concept, which makes anything what it is. A chair is a chair because it ‘participates in’ the Form of Chair. The Forms are ideal ‘patterns,’ unchanging, timeless, and perfect. They exist in a world of their own (cf. the Kantian noumenal realm). Plato speaks of them as self-predicating: the Form of Beauty is perfectly beautiful. This led, as he realized, to the Third Man argument that there must be an infinite number of Forms. The only true understanding is of the Forms. This we attain through anamnesis, ‘recollection.’ (2) Aristotle agreed that forms are closely tied to intelligibility, but denied their separate existence. Aristotle explains change and generation through a distinction between the form and matter of substances. A lump of bronze (matter) becomes a statue through its being molded into a certain shape (form). In his earlier metaphysics, Aristotle identified primary substance with the composite of matter and form, e.g. Socrates. Later, he suggests that primary substance is form – what makes Socrates what he is (the form here is his soul). This notion of forms as essences has obvious similarities with the Platonic view. They became the ‘substantial forms’ of Scholasticism, accepted until the seventeenth century. (3) Kant saw form as the a priori aspect of experience. We are presented with phenomenological ‘matter,’ which has no meaning until the mind imposes some form upon it. See also ARISTOTLE , KANT, METAPHYSICS , PLAT. R.C.