Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Preliminaries: reading Plato
- THE DIALOGUES
- Introduction: The simile of the cave in the Republic
- 1 The Apology: Socrates' defence, Plato's manifesto
- 2 The Phaedo: Socrates' defence continued
- 3 ‘Examining myself and others’, I: knowledge and soul in Charmides, First Alcibiades, Meno, Republic, Euthyphro, Phaedrus
- 4 The moral psychology of the Gorgias
- 5 ‘Examining myself and others’, II: soul, the excellences and the ‘longer road’ in the Republic
- Appendix to Chapter 5: Socrates vs Thrasymachus in Republic I
- Interlude: A schedule of the genuine dialogues
- 6 Knowledge and the philosopher-rulers of the Republic, I: knowledge and belief in Book v
- 7 Knowledge and the philosopher-rulers of the Republic, II: the limits of knowledge
- 8 The Theaetetus, and the preferred Socratic–Platonic account of knowledge
- 9 The form of the good and the good: the Republic in conversation with other (‘pre-Republic’) dialogues
- 10 Republic and Timaeus: the status of Timaeus' account of the physical universe
- 11 Plato on the art of writing and speaking (logoi): the Phaedrus
- Epilogue: What is Platonism?
- Bibliography
- Index
9 - The form of the good and the good: the Republic in conversation with other (‘pre-Republic’) dialogues
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Preliminaries: reading Plato
- THE DIALOGUES
- Introduction: The simile of the cave in the Republic
- 1 The Apology: Socrates' defence, Plato's manifesto
- 2 The Phaedo: Socrates' defence continued
- 3 ‘Examining myself and others’, I: knowledge and soul in Charmides, First Alcibiades, Meno, Republic, Euthyphro, Phaedrus
- 4 The moral psychology of the Gorgias
- 5 ‘Examining myself and others’, II: soul, the excellences and the ‘longer road’ in the Republic
- Appendix to Chapter 5: Socrates vs Thrasymachus in Republic I
- Interlude: A schedule of the genuine dialogues
- 6 Knowledge and the philosopher-rulers of the Republic, I: knowledge and belief in Book v
- 7 Knowledge and the philosopher-rulers of the Republic, II: the limits of knowledge
- 8 The Theaetetus, and the preferred Socratic–Platonic account of knowledge
- 9 The form of the good and the good: the Republic in conversation with other (‘pre-Republic’) dialogues
- 10 Republic and Timaeus: the status of Timaeus' account of the physical universe
- 11 Plato on the art of writing and speaking (logoi): the Phaedrus
- Epilogue: What is Platonism?
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Last in the order of exposition, in the Republic, of what the true lover of wisdom will want to learn, and of what the imagined philosopher-rulers will be brought to ‘see’, comes the ‘greatest’ subject of all, the ‘greatest object for learning’ (to megiston mathēma, vi, 504d2–3, etc.). Adimantus expresses surprise that there could be any greater subject to be learned about than the ones they've already treated, i.e. justice and the other excellences – to which Socrates retorts that Adimantus already pretty well knows what this new subject is, because he's heard about it often enough (a point that will be repeatedly reinforced): it's the form of the good (hē tou agathou idea, 505a2), which is what makes just things and the rest useful and beneficial (sc. so that it really is a more important subject than justice and the other excellences). Adimantus also knows that ‘we’ (humanity in general?) don't have adequate knowledge of the good – and if we don't have knowledge of it, then even the most complete knowledge of the rest will be of no use to us, any more than if we merely possess something without its also being good for us.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Plato and the Art of Philosophical Writing , pp. 239 - 254Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007