Platonic ideal

Imagine you have a bunch of toy cars. They all look different - some are red, some are blue, some are big, and some are small. But even though they're different, there's something they all have in common: they're all cars.

Now imagine that there's a perfect version of a car out there, that every single toy car is trying to be like. This perfect car is called a platonic ideal. Even though no real car can ever be exactly like the platonic ideal car, every car can try its best to be as close to it as possible.

In the same way, there are platonic ideals for other things too - like cats, or tables, or even concepts like justice or love. These are the perfect versions of those things, and even though no real cat or table or justice can ever be exactly like the platonic ideal, we try to make them as close as we can.