The Intelligent Troglodyte’s Guide to Plato’s Republic, 2016a
The Intelligent Troglodyte’s Guide to Plato’s Republic, 2016a
The Intelligent Troglodyte’s Guide to Plato’s Republic, 2016a
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sexually attractive the lovers may find one another, the point of this kind of love is<br />
<strong>to</strong> direct the soul away from beauty as it appears in the flesh and <strong>to</strong>wards the<br />
pattern of beauty itself. Pla<strong>to</strong>nic love is described more fully in other dialogues,<br />
especially the Lysis, Symposium, and Phaedrus.<br />
Does acquiring an appreciation for beauty make one a better person?<br />
When we speak of a person’s “inner beauty,” what is it that we have in<br />
mind? Is being morally virtuous what it is for a human soul <strong>to</strong> be beautiful?<br />
How are feelings and reason related? Notice that <strong>to</strong> be interested in<br />
something is, in a way, <strong>to</strong> care about it. Is reasoning a way of caring about<br />
things?<br />
Suppose someone were <strong>to</strong> object, in the spirit of Thrasymachus, that beauty<br />
is whatever the people in power make it. If the king and queen start wearing<br />
high-heeled shoes and powdered wigs, then high-heeled shoes and<br />
powdered wigs come <strong>to</strong> be recognized as beautiful. It may be the case that<br />
acquiring a taste for beauty typically precedes acquiring an understanding of<br />
beauty, but this is only because there is nothing more <strong>to</strong> understand about<br />
beauty than the conventions of the day. All this talk of coming <strong>to</strong> resemble<br />
and enter in<strong>to</strong> harmony with the beauty of reason is a distraction from<br />
what’s really going on here – cultural brainwashing. How might Socrates<br />
reply?<br />
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