philosophy 101

This is a good question; and one I think I can give you a text book answer to... But I am trying to get another damned book shelf in my basement right now... In any event, Look at how the word form is used in the Declaration of Independence... Think of the many uses of the word: Form in our daily language, such as: Inform, reform, formality and informality...

It is roughly the equal of idea, or concept, which is a much newer word, and is, I believe, a cognate of morph, and morpheme... This really is a great question for beginning philosophy and you should tell your professor so, and it is because when you understand forms you will understand knowledge as an abstraction, but on a very practical level begin to understand all of human progress since every idea/form is a bit of knowledge, and we have forms of the physical world, that is: True concepts- out of which are build conceptual manifolds like Geometry or physics; and then we have moral forms like liberty or justice or love out of which social forms like government or law or marriage are built... Every advance of humanity involved a change of forms... When people changed their form of dwelling from tent to dungeon to cabin their minds and understanding had changed as well...Every form is a form of relationship which is a fact you should be aware of even if your professor is not... From slavery to free labor is not simply a change of forms of economy or labor, but of relationships between people so that every form can be judged for its health and success by the quality of the relationships it gives structure to... Look at the word: uniform... It reveals one of the purposes of all our forms: Recognition... We need it existentially because we have no objective means to prove our reality to ourselves, even, and yet, recognition by our friends helps... But, we also survive through our forms just as we fight and die over them... Ultimately, our own reality, our realization- is the object of all our forms... We can change our forms, though it is difficult... We cannot live without them...Forms are meanings...

http://www.google.ca/#hl=en&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=plato+and+aristotle+form+theory&oq=Plato+and+Aristotle%2C+“+FORM”&aq=0j&aqi=g-j1&aql=&gs_l=hp.1.0.0i18.2816l2816l0l7152l1l1l0l0l0l0l208l208l2-1l1l0.llsin.&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=a0b0e020f3d5101c&biw=1332&bih=908