The philosopher produces reproductions of the ideal world which is too bright for the newly initiated to see. C. Universal ideas v. sense perception 1. All particulars in this world participate in their ideal forms in the noumenal world. But they reveal it imperfectly. The idea reveals the perfect potential for the form.
Ideas are the life force of the entity and therefore are more real than the entity.
Ideas are the final cause, telos, for they determine the purpose or 'towards which' of the entity. A. Finding the soul, recollecting, and transmigration. The pyramid leading to God as ultimate initiator of energia and telos. The soul mediates between these worlds. But is the ideal world merely a glorification of the material, categorical world.