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Single Idea 173

[filed under theme 21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 4. Beauty ]

Full Idea

What is good is the same as what is beautiful.

Clarification

'Beauty' is the Greek word 'kalos', which also translates as 'fine'

Gist of Idea

Beauty and goodness are the same

Source

Plato (The Symposium [c.384 BCE], 201c)

Book Ref

Plato: 'The Symposium', ed/tr. Hamilton,W [Penguin 1951], p.78

The 19 ideas from 'The Symposium'

14177 Love assists men in achieving merit and happiness [Plato]
170 The only slavery which is not dishonourable is slavery to excellence [Plato]
171 Music is a knowledge of love in the realm of harmony and rhythm [Plato]
172 Love of ugliness is impossible [Plato]
173 Beauty and goodness are the same [Plato]
174 True opinion without reason is midway between wisdom and ignorance [Plato]
14178 Happiness is secure enjoyment of what is good and beautiful [Plato]
175 Gods are not lovers of wisdom, because they are already wise [Plato]
176 Love follows beauty, wisdom is exceptionally beautiful, so love follows wisdom [Plato]
177 If a person is good they will automatically become happy [Plato]
179 Love is desire for perpetual possession of the good [Plato]
4026 Beauty is harmony with what is divine, and ugliness is lack of such harmony [Plato]
180 We call a person the same throughout life, but all their attributes change [Plato]
181 Only the gods stay unchanged; we replace our losses with similar acquisitions [Plato]
14179 The finest branch of wisdom is justice and moderation in ordering states and families [Plato]
182 The first step on the right path is the contemplation of physical beauty when young [Plato]
1607 Diotima said the Forms are the objects of desire in philosophical discourse [Plato, by Roochnik]
183 Stage two is the realisation that beauty of soul is of more value than beauty of body [Plato]
184 Progress goes from physical beauty, to moral beauty, to the beauty of knowledge, and reaches absolute beauty [Plato]