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Plato's Offspring Of The Good Essay

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Plato’s Republic defines goodness through the analogy of knowledge and sight. I noticed that when Glaucon and Adeimantus confront Socrates about his belief on the definition of goodness, Socrates does not directly define the term but instead decides to explain what “the offspring of the good” is (Plato 168). To describe this, he uses an analogy of the sun to compare the light of the sun to the knowledge and truth of goodness. He highlights, “The good begot the sun as a proportion to itself” (170). What Socrates means by this analogy is that as the sun uses light to see and be seen by the eye, goodness uses truth and knowledge to know and be known by the soul. The “offspring of the good” to Socrates, then, is the sun. Without the sun, one would …show more content…

He argues that every person pursues what they believe seems good but not what actually is. Knowing the Form of the Good is the highest form of intelligence, and “knowing everything else is useless without knowing the good” (Plato 166). One is unable to know the other Forms without knowledge of what goodness is and means because the Form of the Good encompasses all of them. Just as the good begot the sun, it produces the other Forms. Thus, the Form of the Good is responsible for both truth and the purpose of existence and being alike. Only when one obtains this knowledge will they be fit to become a guardian in Socrates’ ideal city and realize that the Form of the Good is “the cause of everything upright and beautiful in all” (178). In particular, philosophers would rule the best in his city because they have reached this realization by seeking to know the good, unlike the uneducated, who “have no single target in life at which to aim all their activity in public and private” (179-180). Through Socrates’ analogy of the Divided Line, they can understand the Form of the Good by ascending through the visible realm to the intelligible realm and reaching its highest segment,

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This could mean that Socrates had understood, or at least on the way to understanding what is the good and how to obtain it. This interpretation also explain Socrates´s behavior, as recounted by Alcibiades. Socrates spend most of his time either thinking(220D), or talking and philosophizing with others(221D, 222E).He seem to show extreme calmness and unrivaled self control( 221B). He does not desire physical beauty, money,power, or anything else that Alcibiades might be interested in(216E), and seem to only be concerned about giving speeches and

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Another difficulty I see here is an incorrect assessment of the problem that Aristotle is addressing. In the text of the Republic, as Plato makes his case for goodness existing above being using the Greek phrase dunamei huperechontos (surpassing it in power), Glaucon responds with daimonias huperbolês (that’s a preternatural exaggeration) (509c). Thus, it is explicit in the text that Plato is making a controversial claim, and I argue that it is controversial for a good reason. Here is an example of Plato’s idealism, which is extrapolated upon at length in the allegory of the cave. The dilemma for Plato, therefore, becomes this: if the form (eidos) of the good is, in itself, an idea that is ontologically superior to being, then how might an

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In Book two of Plato’s Republic, there is the continued argument about what a just life is. It is brought up once again when Glaucon, who wasn’t satisfied with Socrates first answer, once again challenges him to argue his opinion on what a just life is but instead of having him recite another definition he poses a challenge. Glaucon inherently asks Socrates to defend justice’s worth and exhibit that justice is innately desirable to injustice, because to Glaucon, justice is not something that people freely participate in, “…even those who practice it do so unwillingly, from an incapacity to do justice..., (Plato 359e1-2)” instead he feels that it is an agreement of sorts between men that ends up being carried out to benefit one’s self. To further

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The existence and continual study of Socrates’ philosophy regardless of differing accounts is astonishing in itself since it survived not through the specific philosopher, but through other people. Which is a testament of the impact that a man, such as Socrates, can make. When we think of Plato, who is regarded as a father of western philosophy, we are quick to think of his major work The Republic, his student Aristotle, and his writing on Socrates. (We think of his writings on Socrates as mere footnotes in philosophical thought without examining them.) “Nothing comes from nothing,” Parmenides proudly claimed, and this philosophical doctrine applies to Plato’s thought.

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In The Republic, Plato writes about his thoughts on good, justice, and how we can achieve it. He starts off by stating that for human happiness and to live the best life philosopher-kings are needed. Not everyone can become a philosopher; certain people simply are non-philosophers also called lovers of sights and sounds. Plato makes the distinction between lovers of wisdom(philosophers) and lovers of sights and sounds clear using beauty as an example. Non-philosophers see ''fine tones and colours and forms and all the artificial products that are made out of them''(476b) but are unable to see or to understand absolute beauty.

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The just person’s soul entails motive for certain kinds of objects the most important of which is knowledge. Socrates describes the hardship and extreme effort required to gain knowledge of the forms and the form of the good, thus the just person will seek learning and not spend time to take care of the satisfaction of desires that typically lead to unjust actions. This approach to unite the gap between a just soul and just actions may have some drawbacks. One negative aspect may be that several unjust actions may be motivated by desires that are compatible with the desire for knowledge. For example, why wouldn’t a person with a great fascination for knowledge steal a book if it would contribute to their

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If a person knows what is ‘good’, then their manner of behaviour will always be good, as they possess the knowledge of how to do so. If a person acts in a ‘bad’ or evil way, this is simply because they lack the knowledge of how to act in a virtuous manner. For Socrates, it was simply a case of knowledge being conducive to good behaviour, and ignorance being conducive to bad behaviour. No-one chooses to act in an evil way, according to Socrates. We aim for good behaviour but fall short of

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The ultimate goal of human life for Plato is to know and understand the truth or the “eidos” of the “good”. The only way for us to see this truth is through our minds. The truth is not accessible in the physical world but in the intellectual realm. For us to be happy or for use to know the truth is only when we are beyond our physical sense it is a totally different level. So according to Plato, “knowledge” and “virtue” are corollary meaning that as long as one exists the other will follow.

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