Plato would refer to these as the Forms and suggested that they function as the fundamental building blocks of the material world. As a simplified example, consider how there are many trees in the world but that no two trees are identical. Despite the fact that each tree is different from the rest, all of them—despite their differences—are still trees. According to Plato, this is because all trees are imperfect shadows of the perfect, ideal Form of a tree—that all trees have as their model. It is through our knowledge of this perfect and ideal Form of a tree that we recognize a tree as a tree;
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