Oct 08 2024 93 mins
Chapter 6 investigates the centrality of the Idea of the Good for Plato's ethics. Just as the Idea of the Good is largely ignored in the bulk of Anglo-American scholarship on Plato's metaphysics, so too it is given little attention in scholarship on Plato's ethics. In this chapter, Gerson demonstrates that any account of Platonic ethics will be deficient if the superordinate Idea of the Good is not the main focus and if the Good is not identified as the absolutely simple first principle of all, the One. The chapter considers the distinction of the superordinate idea of the Good from a coordinate Form of the Good and examines their respective functions within Plato's moral philosophy. Gerson examines the knowledge of the Forms of the Virtues and looks at goodness as integrative unity. Finally, the chapter discusses the connection, drawn explicitly by Plotinus, between eros and the Good.
Chapter Sections:
[6.1] The Form of the Good and the Idea of the Good (@00:00:59 )
[6.2] Virtue, Knowledge, and the Good (@00:30:44 )
[6.3] Platonic Ethics without the Idea of the Good (@00:48:44 )
[6.4] The Good, Ethical Prescriptions, and Integrative Unity (@00:59:37 )
[6.5] Eros and the Good (@01:13:07 )