On the second stage of my journey, I began to create things out of the driftwood. Unsure of what these things were, I started to think of them as monsters and this led my inquiry back to Socrates: I began to wonder what a monster is – what the FORM of a monster looks like?
I looked up the definition of a monster and was thrilled to discover the following:
MONSTER: an animal or plant of abnormal form or structure
So why was I thrilled by this definition? I am a university lecturer and a lifelong student of Socrates and Plato. Every semester I teach a Platonic dialogue; Socrates, it seems, is always with me – including in this journey! Socrates’ teaching of the forms is complex and controversial, so here is a very brief summary: