Archetypal: they are the models for every kind of thing that does or could exist. Perfect: they include absolutely and perfectly all features of the things of which they are the models. With Plato's divided line he has what he calls, "essential Form of the Good." Why must we believe in something even above the Forms, a sort of Form of the Forms? The answer is this: just as the many images, say in a pool of water, must derive their relative being from some one thing above them, the Form table, derive from the Form of the Good. And just as it is above all realities and is their ultimate source, so it is above all knowledge and is its ultimate source. Of course, in order to be the source of knowledge, it itself cannot be a being or a thing known. That is why Plato says of the Good that it is beyond being and knowledge. (Miller, p.85) .
Aristotle ruthlessly criticized his master"s theory of the Forms, and propounded a quite different one. To exist to Aristotle was to be which is to be a particular thing. A thing partakes in matter and form they are equally important for a thing to exist. Aristotle put more emphasis on form, later on, since form is what dictates a thing's purpose. form "essential nature" of a thing; defines a thing's purpose. All things to Aristotle have a purpose. Aristotle believed in a Theory of Natural Law this theory deals with the world as a purposive structure. He also said all things have four causes and the causes are the answer to four questions:.
1. What is it? FORMAL CAUSE (form).
.
2. What is it made of? MATERIAL CAUSE (matter).
3. How did it come to exist? EFFICIENT CAUSE (relates to how substances act upon one another).
4. What is it for? FINAL CAUSE (for what end or purpose).
Through these questions we have the knowledge of how things evolved.
