The Eternally True, Eternally Beautiful, and Eternally
Good
In the introduction to this course I mentioned that it could often be a
good idea to ask what a particular philosopher’s project was. So now I ask:
what were the problems Plato was concerned with?
Briefly, we can establish that Plato was concerned with the relationship
between what is eternal and immutable, on the one hand, and what “flows,”
on the other. (Just like the pre-Socratics, in fact.) We’ve seen how the Soph-
ists and Socrates turned their attention from questions of natural philosophy to
problems related to man and society. And yet in one sense, even Socrates
and the Sophists were preoccupied with the relationship between the eternal
and immutable, and the “flowing.” They were interested in the problem as it
related to human morals and society’s ideals or virtues. Very briefly, the
Sophists thought that perceptions of what was right or wrong varied from one
city-state to another, and from one generation to the next. So right and wrong
was something that “flowed.” This was totally unacceptable to Socrates. He
believed in the existence of eternal and absolute rules for what was right or
wrong. By using our common sense we can all arrive at these immutable
norms, since human reason is in fact eternal and immutable.
Do you follow, Sophie? Then along comes Plato. He is concerned with
both what is eternal and immutable in nature and what is eternal and
immutable as regards morals and society. To Plato, these two problems were
one and the same. He tried to grasp a “reality” that was eternal and
immutable.
And to be quite frank, that is precisely what we need philosophers for.
We do not need them to choose a beauty queen or the day’s bargain in
tomatoes. (This is why they are often unpopular!) Philosophers will try to
ignore highly topical affairs and instead try to draw people’s attention to what
is eternally “true,” eternally “beautiful,” and eternally “good.”
We can thus begin to glimpse at least the outline of Plato’s philosophical
project. But let’s take one thing at a time. We are attempting to understand an
extraordinary mind, a mind that was to have a profound influence on all
subsequent European philosophy.
The World of Ideas
Both Empedocles and Democritus had drawn attention to the fact that
although in the natural world everything “flows,” there must nevertheless be
“something” that never changes (the “four roots,” or the “atoms”). Plato agreed
with the proposition as such—but in quite a different way.
Plato believed that everything tangible in nature “flows.” So there are no
“substances” that do not dissolve. Absolutely everything that belongs to the
“material world” is made of a material that time can erode, but everything is
made after a timeless “mold” or “form” that is eternal and immutable.
You see? No, you don’t.
Why are horses the same, Sophie? You probably don’t think they are at
all. But there is something that all horses have in common, something that
enables us to identify them as horses. A particular horse “flows,” naturally. It
might be old and lame, and in time it will die. But the “form” of the horse is
eternal and immutable.