Plato proposed that the world of empirical observation, that which we see, touch, smell, etc., is not the real world. Rather the world experienced through the sense is a "shadow" world. It is only a reflection of the real world or the World of Forms or the World of Ideas. This world of “things” is only a "copy of the eternal world of spiritual Forms." (Colin Brown, Christianity and Philosophy, 15)
He demonstrated this metaphysical perspective through his allegory of the Cave in which he depicted a group of prisoners facing a wall upon which they are observing the shadows of real events taking place behind them. Never having seen the real events they mistake the shadows for reality. The allegory is intended to convey the transitory nature of this world and the importance of not confusing this world with ultimate reality. Only through a reorientation of our perspective and through rationality can we come to the recognition that the world of “stuff” which we observe is temporary or transitory. In contradistinction to what we experience in this world of shadows, the real world, authentic world consists of an unseen realm which Plato designated as the world of Ideas or Forms.
Plato's metaphysics is intimately linked to his theory of knowledge. He believed that in order to attain genuine knowledge we should go beyond the changing world of day-to-day particulars and grasp the timeless and unchanging universals of which ordinary objects are imperfect instances. For example, a particular beautiful object is only beautiful in a limited and passing way. It is a mere copy of the form of beauty, the "beauty itself."
