Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-fwgfc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-14T22:06:11.759Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Part 4 - Various Further Questions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 July 2021

Sarah Broadie
Affiliation:
University of St Andrews, Scotland
Get access

Summary

Part 4 addresses some questions arising. (1) Elsewhere (and, we assume, in the Republic) Plato recognizes a ‘good-making’ good – that without which all other goods lack value – which he identifies with wisdom. How does the ‘good-maker’ relate to the sun-like form? (2) The Republic recognizes a form of the good in which all good things participate. This entity cannot be straightforwardly identical with the sun-like form since the latter is interrogative whereas the former answers to the predicate of a true declarative sentence saying that something is good. How are these ‘two’ entities related? Discussion shows that the sun-like one is metaphysically prior to the participand. (3) What is the purpose of the rulers’ mathematical education? The Republic is explicit that it constitutes their induction into rationality. It neither says nor implies (so the present argument) that their ethical expertise will be couched in mathematical language, or that dialectic is responsible for a programme of grounding mathematics on ultimate metaphysical principles. (4) What is the role of the form of the good in the divine crafting of the cosmos? Does the interrogative interpretation apply here too? And is the sun-like form of the good actually a god itself?

Type
Chapter
Information
Plato's Sun-Like Good
Dialectic in the Republic
, pp. 163 - 205
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Various Further Questions
  • Sarah Broadie, University of St Andrews, Scotland
  • Book: Plato's Sun-Like Good
  • Online publication: 08 July 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009025379.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Various Further Questions
  • Sarah Broadie, University of St Andrews, Scotland
  • Book: Plato's Sun-Like Good
  • Online publication: 08 July 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009025379.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Various Further Questions
  • Sarah Broadie, University of St Andrews, Scotland
  • Book: Plato's Sun-Like Good
  • Online publication: 08 July 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009025379.004
Available formats
×