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Single Idea 1913

[filed under theme 23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 2. Elements of Virtue Theory / d. Teaching virtue ]

Full Idea

Is virtue something that can be taught, or does it come by practice, or is it a natural aptitude, or something else?

Gist of Idea

Is virtue taught, or achieved by practice, or a natural aptitude, or what?

Source

Plato (Meno [c.385 BCE], 70a)

Book Ref

Plato: 'Protagoras and Meno', ed/tr. Guthrie,W K C [Penguin 1956], p.115

The 463 ideas from Plato

1655 If goodness needs true opinion but not knowledge, you can skip the 'examined life' [Vlastos on Plato]
1590 The just man does not harm his enemies, but benefits everyone [Plato]
13776 Truths say of what is that it is, falsehoods say of what is that it is not [Plato]
13772 Is the being or essence of each thing private to each person? [Plato]
13774 Things don't have every attribute, and essence isn't private, so each thing has an essence [Plato]
13775 We only succeed in cutting if we use appropriate tools, not if we approach it randomly [Plato]
13777 A name is a sort of tool [Plato]
13778 A dialectician is someone who knows how to ask and to answer questions [Plato]
13779 The natural offspring of a lion is called a 'lion' (but what about the offspring of a king?) [Plato]
13780 Good people are no different from wise ones [Plato]
13781 Soul causes the body to live, and gives it power to breathe and to be revitalized [Plato]
13783 Even the gods love play [Plato]
13785 'Arete' signifies lack of complexity and a free-flowing soul [Plato]
13786 Wisdom is called 'beautiful', because it performs fine works [Plato]
13787 Doesn't each thing have an essence, just as it has other qualities? [Plato]
13788 If we made a perfect duplicate of Cratylus, there would be two Cratyluses [Plato]
13789 Anyone who knows a thing's name also knows the thing [Plato]
13790 A name-giver might misname something, then force other names to conform to it [Plato]
13791 Things must be known before they are named, so it can't be the names that give us knowledge [Plato]
2063 How can beauty have identity if it changes? [Plato]
13792 There can't be any knowledge if things are constantly changing [Plato]
16120 Knowing how to achieve immortality is pointless without the knowledge how to use immortality [Plato]
301 Only knowledge of some sort is good [Plato]
302 What knowledge is required to live well? [Plato]
303 Say how many teeth the other has, then count them. If you are right, we will trust your other claims [Plato]
304 Beautiful things must be different from beauty itself, but beauty itself must be present in each of them [Plato]
305 Something which lies midway between two evils is better than either of them [Plato]
335 Do the gods also hold different opinions about what is right and honourable? [Plato]
336 Is what is pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because they love it? (the 'Euthyphro Question') [Plato]
337 It seems that the gods love things because they are pious, rather than making them pious by loving them [Plato]
1654 In "Gorgias" Socrates is confident that his 'elenchus' will decide moral truth [Vlastos on Plato]
4320 The popular view is that health is first, good looks second, and honest wealth third [Plato]
114 Rhetoric can produce conviction, but not educate people about right and wrong [Plato]
4321 We should test one another, by asking and answering questions [Plato]
116 Rhetoric is irrational about its means and its ends [Plato]
118 I would rather be a victim of crime than a criminal [Plato]
119 A criminal is worse off if he avoids punishment [Plato]
120 Should we avoid evil because it will bring us bad consequences? [Plato]
122 Moral rules are made by the weak members of humanity [Plato]
123 Do most people like equality because they are second-rate? [Plato]
124 Does nature imply that it is right for better people to have greater benefits? [Plato]
125 Is a gifted philosopher unmanly if he avoids the strife of the communal world? [Plato]
128 Is it natural to simply indulge our selfish desires? [Plato]
129 Do most people praise self-discipline and justice because they are too timid to gain their own pleasure? [Plato]
130 Is the happiest state one of sensual, self-indulgent freedom? [Plato]
131 If absence of desire is happiness, then nothing is happier than a stone or a corpse [Plato]
4319 In a fool's mind desire is like a leaky jar, insatiable in its desires, and order and contentment are better [Plato]
132 If happiness is the satisfaction of desires, then a life of scratching itches should be happiness [Plato]
4322 In slaking our thirst the goodness of the action and the pleasure are clearly separate [Plato]
134 Good and bad people seem to experience equal amounts of pleasure and pain [Plato]
135 All activity aims at the good [Plato]
136 Good should be the aim of pleasant activity, not the other way round [Plato]
137 As with other things, a good state is organised and orderly [Plato]
139 A good person is bound to act well, and this brings happiness [Plato]
140 Self-indulgent desire makes friendship impossible, because it makes a person incapable of co-operation [Plato]
141 A good citizen won't be passive, but will redirect the needs of the state [Plato]
297 What is fine is the parent of goodness [Plato]
298 While sex is very pleasant, it should be in secret, as it looks contemptible [Plato]
299 What is fine is always difficult [Plato]
291 Don't assume that wisdom is the automatic consequence of old age [Plato]
293 Being unafraid (perhaps through ignorance) and being brave are two different things [Plato]
8004 In 'The Laws', to obey the law is to be obey god [Plato, by MacIntyre]
235 Virtue is the aim of all laws [Plato]
236 Sound laws achieve the happiness of those who observe them [Plato]
238 Children's games should channel their pleasures into adult activity [Plato]
239 Education in virtue produces citizens who are active but obedient [Plato]
4331 Education is channelling a child's feelings into the right course before it understands why [Plato]
4332 Virtue is a concord of reason and emotion, with pleasure and pain trained to correct ends [Plato]
240 It would be strange if the gods rewarded those who experienced the most pleasure in life [Plato]
241 We ought to follow where the argument leads us [Plato]
15447 We shouldn't always follow where the argument leads! [Lewis on Plato]
242 The best people are produced where there is no excess of wealth or poverty [Plato]
243 It is foolish to quarrel with the mind's own reasoning processes [Plato]
245 Totalitarian states destroy friendships and community spirit [Plato]
248 A serious desire for moral excellence is very rare indeed [Plato]
249 People who value beauty above virtue insult the soul by placing the body above it [Plato]
250 The best way to educate the young is not to rebuke them, but to set a good example [Plato]
251 Truth has the supreme value, for both gods and men [Plato]
253 Every crime is the result of excessive self-love [Plato]
254 Excessive laughter and tears must be avoided [Plato]
256 Virtue and great wealth are incompatible [Plato]
257 Mathematics has the widest application of any subject on the curriculum [Plato]
1402 Friendship is impossible between master and slave, even if they are made equal [Plato]
259 Justice is granting the equality which unequals deserve [Plato]
260 Control of education is the key office of state, and should go to the best citizen [Plato]
262 Men and women should qualify equally for honours on merit [Plato]
263 The only worthwhile life is one devoted to physical and moral perfection [Plato]
264 The conquest of pleasure is the noblest victory of all [Plato]
265 An action is only just if it is performed by someone with a just character and outlook [Plato]
266 Injustice is the mastery of the soul by bad feelings, even if they do not lead to harm [Plato]
269 Attempted murder is like real murder, but we should respect the luck which avoided total ruin [Plato]
21257 Self-generating motion is clearly superior to all other kinds of motion [Plato]
21258 The only possible beginning for the endless motions of reality is something self-generated [Plato]
273 Movement is transmitted through everything, and it must have started with self-generated motion [Plato]
21259 To grasp a thing we need its name, its definition, and what it really is [Plato]
21260 Soul is what is defined by 'self-generating motion' [Plato]
21261 Self-moving soul has to be the oldest thing there is [Plato]
274 Soul must be the cause of all the opposites, such as good and evil or beauty and ugliness [Plato]
21262 There must be at least two souls controlling the cosmos, one doing good, the other the opposite [Plato]
21263 If all the motions of nature reflect calculations of reason, then the best kind of soul must direct it [Plato]
21264 Mortals are incapable of being fully rational [Plato]
21265 The heavens must be full of gods, controlling nature either externally or from within [Plato]
275 Creation is not for you; you exist for the sake of creation [Plato]
276 My individuality is my soul, which carries my body around [Plato]
277 The Guardians must aim to discover the common element in the four cardinal virtues [Plato]
278 If astronomical movements are seen as necessary instead of by divine will, this leads to atheism [Plato]
168 To understand morality requires a soul [Plato]
294 People say that friendship exists only between good men [Plato]
295 The good is beautiful [Plato]
1913 Is virtue taught, or achieved by practice, or a natural aptitude, or what? [Plato]
1916 Even if virtues are many and various, they must have something in common to make them virtues [Plato]
1918 How can you know part of virtue without knowing the whole? [Plato]
11259 How can you seek knowledge of something if you don't know it? [Plato]
1919 You don't need to learn what you know, and how do you seek for what you don't know? [Plato]
5985 Seeking and learning are just recollection [Plato]
5986 The slave boy learns geometry from questioning, not teaching, so it is recollection [Plato]
1921 If virtue is a type of knowledge then it ought to be taught [Plato]
1922 Spiritual qualities only become advantageous with the growth of wisdom [Plato]
1923 As a guide to action, true opinion is as good as knowledge [Plato]
20219 True opinions only become really valuable when they are tied down by reasons [Plato]
1927 It seems that virtue is neither natural nor taught, but is a divine gift [Plato]
15846 In Parmenides, if composition is identity, a whole is nothing more than its parts [Plato, by Harte,V]
13986 Plato found antinomies in ideas, Kant in space and time, and Bradley in relations [Plato, by Ryle]
14150 Plato's 'Parmenides' is perhaps the best collection of antinomies ever made [Russell on Plato]
8937 Plato's 'Parmenides' is the greatest artistic achievement of the ancient dialectic [Hegel on Plato]
16151 Plato moves from Forms to a theory of genera and principles in his later work [Plato, by Frede,M]
21821 Plato's Parmenides has a three-part theory, of Primal One, a One-Many, and a One-and-Many [Plato, by Plotinus]
211 If admirable things have Forms, maybe everything else does as well [Plato]
210 It would be absurd to think there were abstract Forms for vile things like hair, mud and dirt [Plato]
212 The whole idea of each Form must be found in each thing which participates in it [Plato]
213 Each idea is in all its participants at once, just as daytime is a unity but in many separate places at once [Plato]
214 If absolute greatness and great things are seen as the same, another thing appears which makes them seem great [Plato]
215 If things partake of ideas, this implies either that everything thinks, or that everything actually is thought [Plato]
216 If things are made alike by participating in something, that thing will be the absolute idea [Plato]
218 Participation is not by means of similarity, so we are looking for some other method of participation [Plato]
217 Nothing can be like an absolute idea, because a third idea intervenes to make them alike (leading to a regress) [Plato]
219 If absolute ideas existed in us, they would cease to be absolute [Plato]
220 The concept of a master includes the concept of a slave [Plato]
221 Absolute ideas, such as the Good and the Beautiful, cannot be known by us [Plato]
222 Only a great person can understand the essence of things, and an even greater person can teach it [Plato]
223 If you deny that each thing always stays the same, you destroy the possibility of discussion [Plato]
224 When questions are doubtful we should concentrate not on objects but on ideas of the intellect [Plato]
13259 It seems that the One must be composed of parts, which contradicts its being one [Plato]
225 The unlimited has no shape and is endless [Plato]
2062 The only movement possible for the One is in space or in alteration [Plato]
16150 One is, so numbers exist, so endless numbers exist, and each one must partake of being [Plato]
15847 Two things relate either as same or different, or part of a whole, or the whole of the part [Plato]
227 You must always mean the same thing when you utter the same name [Plato]
228 Greatness and smallness must exist, to be opposed to one another, and come into being in things [Plato]
229 The one was and is and will be and was becoming and is becoming and will become [Plato]
15849 Plato says only a one has parts, and a many does not [Plato, by Harte,V]
15850 Anything which has parts must be one thing, and parts are of a one, not of a many [Plato]
231 Everything partakes of the One in some way [Plato]
15851 Parts must belong to a created thing with a distinct form [Plato]
232 Opposites are as unlike as possible [Plato]
233 Some things do not partake of the One [Plato]
234 We couldn't discuss the non-existence of the One without knowledge of it [Plato]
16516 The ship which Theseus took to Crete is now sent to Delos crowned with flowers [Plato]
350 In investigation the body leads us astray, but the soul gets a clear view of the facts [Plato]
9343 To achieve pure knowledge, we must get rid of the body and contemplate things with the soul [Plato]
351 War aims at the acquisition of wealth, because we are enslaved to the body [Plato]
354 Wisdom makes virtue and true goodness possible [Plato]
357 People are obviously recollecting when they react to a geometrical diagram [Plato]
359 If we feel the inadequacy of a resemblance, we must recollect the original [Plato]
360 We must have a prior knowledge of equality, if we see 'equal' things and realise they fall short of it [Plato]
361 It is a mistake to think that the most violent pleasure or pain is therefore the truest reality [Plato]
362 The greatest misfortune for a person is to develop a dislike for argument [Plato]
363 Whether the soul pre-exists our body depends on whether it contains the ultimate standard of reality [Plato]
364 One soul can't be more or less of a soul than another [Plato]
13154 Do we think and experience with blood, air or fire, or could it be our brain? [Plato]
15859 To investigate the causes of things, study what is best for them [Plato]
13155 If you add one to one, which one becomes two, or do they both become two? [Plato]
13156 Fancy being unable to distinguish a cause from its necessary background conditions! [Plato]
1 There is only one source for all beauty [Plato]
368 Other things are named after the Forms because they participate in them [Plato]
21347 If Simmias is taller than Socrates, that isn't a feature that is just in Simmias [Plato]
369 If the Earth is spherical and in the centre, it is kept in place by universal symmetry, not by force [Plato]
370 Philosophy is a purification of the soul ready for the afterlife [Plato]
23997 Plato saw emotions and appetites as wild horses, in need of taming [Plato, by Goldie]
143 The two ruling human principles are the natural desire for pleasure, and an acquired love of virtue [Plato]
144 Reason impels us towards excellence, which teaches us self-control [Plato]
146 Soul is always in motion, so it must be self-moving and immortal [Plato]
148 If the prime origin is destroyed, it will not come into being again out of anything [Plato]
9296 The soul is self-motion [Plato]
150 We cannot conceive of God, so we have to think of Him as an immortal version of ourselves [Plato]
149 There isn't a single reason for positing the existence of immortal beings [Plato]
151 True knowledge is of the reality behind sense experience [Plato]
152 The mind of God is fully satisfied and happy with a vision of reality and truth [Plato]
153 It takes a person to understand, by using universals, and by using reason to create a unity out of sense-impressions [Plato]
154 We would have an overpowering love of knowledge if we had a pure idea of it - as with the other Forms [Plato]
155 Beauty is the clearest and most lovely of the Forms [Plato]
156 Bad people are never really friends with one another [Plato]
157 Most pleasure is release from pain, and is therefore not worthwhile [Plato]
158 An excellent speech seems to imply a knowledge of the truth in the mind of the speaker [Plato]
159 Only a good philosopher can be a good speaker [Plato]
7953 Reasoning needs to cut nature accurately at the joints [Plato]
16121 I revere anyone who can discern a single thing that encompasses many things [Plato]
160 The highest ability in man is the ability to discuss unity and plurality in the nature of things [Plato]
162 Can we understand an individual soul without knowing the soul in general? [Plato]
165 If the apparent facts strongly conflict with probability, it is in everyone's interests to suppress the facts [Plato]
166 A speaker should be able to divide a subject, right down to the limits of divisibility [Plato]
5946 'Phaedrus' pioneers the notion of philosophical rhetoric [Lawson-Tancred on Plato]
371 Reason, memory, truth and wisdom are far better than pleasure, for those who can attain them [Plato]
373 Pleasure is certainly very pleasant, but it doesn't follow that all pleasures are good [Plato]
374 If one object is divided into its parts, someone can then say that one are many and many is one [Plato]
15845 It seems absurd that seeing a person's limbs, the one is many, and yet the many are one [Plato]
4447 If the good is one, is it unchanged when it is in particulars, and is it then separated from itself? [Plato]
15856 A thing can become one or many, depending on how we talk about it [Plato]
376 Would you prefer a life of pleasure without reason, or one of reason without pleasure? [Plato]
377 If you lived a life of maximum pleasure, would you still be lacking anything? [Plato]
378 A life of pure pleasure with no intellect is the life of a jellyfish [Plato]
379 The good must be sufficient and perfect, and neither intellect nor pleasure are that [Plato]
381 We feel pleasure when we approach our natural state of harmony [Plato]
382 It is unlikely that the gods feel either pleasure or pain [Plato]
385 Some of the pleasures and pains we feel are false [Plato]
386 Intense pleasure and pain are not felt in a good body, but in a worthless one [Plato]
387 A small pure pleasure is much finer than a large one contaminated with pain [Plato]
388 Hedonists must say that someone in pain is bad, even if they are virtuous [Plato]
9865 Daily arithmetic counts unequal things, but pure arithmetic equalises them [Plato]
389 How can you be certain about aspects of the world if they aren't constant? [Plato]
9867 It is absurd to define a circle, but not be able to recognise a real one [Plato]
14503 If a mixture does not contain measure and proportion, it is corrupted and destroyed [Plato]
15857 Any mixture which lacks measure and proportion doesn't even count as a mixture at all [Plato]
390 If goodness involves moderation and proportion, then it seems to be found in beauty [Plato]
391 The good involves beauty, proportion and truth [Plato]
392 Neither intellect nor pleasure are the good, because they are not perfect and self-sufficient [Plato]
393 Good first, then beauty, then reason, then knowledge, then pleasure [Plato, by PG]
188 Socrates did not believe that virtue could be taught [Plato]
189 If we punish wrong-doers, it shows that we believe virtue can be taught [Plato]
190 If asked whether justice itself is just or unjust, you would have to say that it is just [Plato]
191 Everything resembles everything else up to a point [Plato]
192 Only one thing can be contrary to something [Plato]
193 Some things are good even though they are not beneficial to men [Plato]
20184 The only real evil is loss of knowledge [Plato]
197 Some pleasures are not good, and some pains are not evil [Plato]
20185 The most important things in life are wisdom and knowledge [Plato]
200 People tend only to disapprove of pleasure if it leads to pain, or prevents future pleasure [Plato]
202 No one willingly and knowingly embraces evil [Plato]
203 Courage is knowing what should or shouldn't be feared [Plato]
204 Socrates is contradicting himself in claiming virtue can't be taught, but that it is knowledge [Plato]
12043 Forms are not universals, as they don't cover every general term [Plato, by Annas]
12122 Plato mistakenly thought forms were totally abstracted away from matter [Bacon on Plato]
5574 Plato's Forms not only do not come from the senses, but they are beyond possibility of sensing [Plato, by Kant]
5094 Plato's Forms are said to have no location in space [Plato, by Aristotle]
2630 If Plato's God is immaterial, he will lack consciousness, wisdom, pleasure and movement, which are essential to him [Cicero on Plato]
6562 Plato's reality has unchanging Parmenidean forms, and Heraclitean flux [Plato, by Fogelin]
4115 Plato found that he could only enforce rational moral justification by creating an authoritarian society [Williams,B on Plato]
1869 The good cannot be expressed in words, but imprints itself upon the soul [Plato, by Celsus]
5945 The 'Republic' is a great work of rhetorical theory [Lawson-Tancred on Plato]
7 Surely you don't return a borrowed weapon to a mad friend? [Plato]
2092 Simonides said morality is helping one's friends and harming one's enemies [Plato]
5 Justice is merely the interests of the stronger party [Plato]
8 Is right just the interests of the powerful? [Plato]
6009 Psychic conflict is clear if appetite is close to the body and reason fairly separate [Plato, by Modrak]
2093 You must never go against what you actually believe [Plato]
2094 A thing's function is what it alone can do, or what it does better than other things [Plato]
2095 If something has a function then it has a state of being good [Plato]
2096 Is the function of the mind management, authority and planning - or is it one's whole way of life? [Plato]
19946 Morality is a compromise, showing restraint, to avoid suffering wrong without compensation [Plato]
10 After a taste of mutual harm, men make a legal contract to avoid it [Plato]
12 If we were invisible, would the just man become like the unjust? [Plato]
13 Is the supreme reward for virtue to be drunk for eternity? [Plato]
2097 Isn't it better to have a reputation for goodness than to actually be good? [Plato]
14 If the gods are non-existent or indifferent, why bother to deceive them? [Plato]
15 Sin first, then sacrifice to the gods from the proceeds [Plato]
16 We avoid evil either through a natural aversion, or because we have acquired knowledge [Plato]
19889 People need society because the individual has too many needs [Plato]
19890 All exchanges in a community are for mutual benefit [Plato]
2120 God is responsible for the good things, but we must look elsewhere for the cause of the bad things [Plato]
2061 The best things (gods, healthy bodies, good souls) are least liable to change [Plato]
23767 The winds of the discussion should decide its destination [Plato]
2123 Excessive pleasure deranges people, making the other virtues impossible [Plato]
2126 A good community necessarily has wisdom, courage, self-discipline and morality [Plato]
23561 People doing their jobs properly is the fourth cardinal virtue for a city [Plato]
2127 The mind has parts, because we have inner conflicts [Plato]
1737 The soul seems to have an infinity of parts [Aristotle on Plato]
6041 There is a third element to the mind - spirit - lying between reason and appetite [Plato]
23562 If the parts of our soul do their correct work, we will be just people, and will act justly [Plato]
2129 Goodness is mental health, badness is mental sickness [Plato]
2130 People often merely practice eristic instead of dialectic, because they don't analyse the subject-matter [Plato]
2131 Is there anything better for a community than to produce excellent people? [Plato]
2132 Only rule by philosophers of integrity can keep a community healthy [Plato]
2133 Knowledge must be of the permanent unchanging nature of things [Plato]
2134 Philosophers are concerned with totally non-physical pleasures [Plato]
2135 Truth is closely related to proportion [Plato]
2136 Philosophers become as divine and orderly as possible, by studying divinity and order [Plato]
23682 It would be absurd to be precise about the small things, but only vague about the big things [Plato]
2137 The main aim is to understand goodness, which gives everything its value and advantage [Plato]
2138 Pleasure is commonly thought to be the good, though the more ingenious prefer knowledge [Plato]
2070 Even people who think pleasure is the good admit that there are bad pleasures [Plato]
4007 For Plato we abandon honour and pleasure once we see the Good [Plato, by Taylor,C]
2139 Every person, and every activity, aims at the good [Plato]
2140 True belief without knowledge is like blind people on the right road [Plato]
2141 I suggest that we forget about trying to define goodness itself for the time being [Plato]
2142 The plurality of beautiful things must belong to a single class, because they have a single particular character [Plato]
2143 Good has the same role in the world of knowledge as the sun has in the physical world [Plato]
2144 Goodness makes truth and knowledge possible [Plato]
21818 Being depends on the Good, which is not itself being, but superior to being [Plato]
2145 In mathematics certain things have to be accepted without further explanation [Plato]
2147 The sight of goodness leads to all that is fine and true and right [Plato]
2148 To gain knowledge, turn away from the world of change, and focus on true goodness [Plato]
4547 Plato measured the degree of reality by the degree of value [Nietzsche on Plato]
2149 Reluctant rulers make a better and more unified administration [Plato]
9861 The same thing is both one and an unlimited number at the same time [Plato]
9862 To become rational, philosophers must rise from becoming into being [Plato]
9863 We aim for elevated discussion of pure numbers, not attaching them to physical objects [Plato]
9864 In pure numbers, all ones are equal, with no internal parts [Plato]
8727 Geometry is not an activity, but the study of unchanging knowledge [Plato]
8726 Geometry can lead the mind upwards to truth and philosophy [Plato]
2151 Dialectic is the only method of inquiry which uproots the things which it takes for granted [Plato]
2152 Dialectic is the highest and most important part of the curriculum [Plato]
2153 Compulsory intellectual work never remains in the mind [Plato]
2154 The ability to take an overview is the distinguishing mark of a dialectician [Plato]
4011 For Plato, rationality is a vision of and love of a cosmic rational order [Plato, by Taylor,C]
2155 True goodness requires mental unity and harmony [Plato]
23316 For Plato and Aristotle there is no will; there is only rational desire for what is seen as good [Plato, by Frede,M]
2156 There are three types of pleasure, for reason, for spirit and for appetite [Plato]
2157 Nice smells are intensive, have no preceding pain, and no bad after-effect [Plato]
2158 Pleasure-seekers desperately seek illusory satisfaction, like filling a leaky vessel [Plato]
17 A Form applies to a set of particular things with the same name [Plato]
2159 Craftsmen making furniture refer to the form, but no one manufactures the form of furniture [Plato]
16565 Without the surface decoration, poetry shows only appearances and nothing of what is real [Plato]
2160 Representation is two steps removed from the truth [Plato]
2162 If theory and practice conflict, the best part of the mind accepts theory, so the other part is of lower grade [Plato]
2163 Artists should be excluded from a law-abiding community, because they destroy the rational mind [Plato]
2164 Bad is always destructive, where good preserves and benefits [Plato]
2165 Something is unlikely to be immortal if it is imperfectly made from diverse parts [Plato]
2166 We should behave well even if invisible, for the health of the mind [Plato]
2168 Clever criminals do well at first, but not in the long run [Plato]
5944 For Plato, virtue is its own reward [Lawson-Tancred on Plato]
1636 Wickedness is an illness of the soul [Plato]
1637 A soul without understanding is ugly [Plato]
1638 Didactic education is hard work and achieves little [Plato]
20478 In discussion a person's opinions are shown to be in conflict, leading to calm self-criticism [Plato]
11278 What does 'that which is not' refer to? [Plato]
1641 Some alarming thinkers think that only things which you can touch exist [Plato]
7022 To be is to have a capacity, to act on other things, or to receive actions [Plato]
1642 We must fight fiercely for knowledge, understanding and intelligence [Plato]
1643 If statements about non-existence are logically puzzling, so are statements about existence [Plato]
16122 Good thinkers spot forms spread through things, or included within some larger form [Plato]
287 Good analysis involves dividing things into appropriate forms without confusion [Plato]
1644 Dialectic should only be taught to those who already philosophise well [Plato]
10422 The not-beautiful is part of the beautiful, though opposed to it, and is just as real [Plato]
1645 The desire to split everything into its parts is unpleasant and unphilosophical [Plato]
15855 If we see everything as separate, we can then give no account of it [Plato]
10784 Whenever there's speech it has to be about something [Plato]
16125 To reveal a nature, divide down, and strip away what it has in common with other things [Plato]
279 Only divine things can always stay the same, and bodies are not like that [Plato]
5961 The soul gets its goodness from god, and its evil from previous existence. [Plato]
281 The arts produce good and beautiful things by preserving the mean [Plato]
16123 Whenever you perceive a community of things, you should also hunt out differences in the group [Plato]
16124 No one wants to define 'weaving' just for the sake of weaving [Plato]
282 Non-physical beauty can only be shown clearly by speech [Plato]
22559 Democracy is the worst of good constitutions, but the best of bad constitutions [Plato, by Aristotle]
283 The question of whether or not to persuade comes before the science of persuasion [Plato]
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]
2045 Perception is infallible, suggesting that it is knowledge [Plato]
2047 What evidence can be brought to show whether we are dreaming or not? [Plato]
2050 It is impossible to believe something which is held to be false [Plato]
2052 Eristic discussion is aggressive, but dialectic aims to help one's companions in discussion [Plato]
2053 If you claim that all beliefs are true, that includes beliefs opposed to your own [Plato]
2054 Clearly some people are superior to others when it comes to medicine [Plato]
2056 Philosophers are always switching direction to something more interesting [Plato]
2057 There must always be some force of evil ranged against good [Plato]
2058 God must be the epitome of goodness, and we can only approach a divine state by being as good as possible [Plato]
2059 How can a relativist form opinions about what will happen in the future? [Plato]
2060 There seem to be two sorts of change: alteration and motion [Plato]
2067 Our senses could have been separate, but they converge on one mind [Plato]
2068 With what physical faculty do we perceive pairs of opposed abstract qualities? [Plato]
2069 Thought must grasp being itself before truth becomes possible [Plato]
2076 How can a belief exist if its object doesn't exist? [Plato]
2078 You might mistake eleven for twelve in your senses, but not in your mind [Plato]
10216 We master arithmetic by knowing all the numbers in our soul [Plato]
2080 Things are only knowable if a rational account (logos) is possible [Plato]
2081 Maybe primary elements can be named, but not receive a rational account [Plato]
2082 A rational account is essentially a weaving together of things with names [Plato]
15854 A primary element has only a name, and no logos, but complexes have an account, by weaving the names [Plato]
15843 The whole can't be the parts, because it would be all of the parts, which is the whole [Plato]
15844 A sum is that from which nothing is lacking, which is a whole [Plato]
2083 Either a syllable is its letters (making parts as knowable as whole) or it isn't (meaning it has no parts) [Plato]
2084 If a word has no parts and has a single identity, it turns out to be the same kind of thing as a letter [Plato]
2085 Parts and wholes are either equally knowable or equally unknowable [Plato]
2086 Understanding mainly involves knowing the elements, not their combinations [Plato]
2087 A rational account might be seeing an image of one's belief, like a reflection in a mirror [Plato]
2088 A rational account of a wagon would mean knowledge of its hundred parts [Plato]
16126 Expertise is knowledge of the whole by means of the parts [Plato]
2089 An inadequate rational account would still not justify knowledge [Plato]
2090 A rational account involves giving an image, or analysis, or giving a differentiating mark [Plato]
2091 Without distinguishing marks, how do I know what my beliefs are about? [Plato]
5962 Plato says the soul is ordered by number [Plato, by Plutarch]
12042 Plato's Forms were seen as part of physics, rather than of metaphysics [Plato, by Annas]
20364 The apprehensions of reason remain unchanging, but reasonless sensation shows mere becoming [Plato]
306 Nothing can come to be without a cause [Plato]
307 Something will always be well-made if the maker keeps in mind the eternal underlying pattern [Plato]
308 If the cosmos is an object of perception then it must be continually changing [Plato]
309 Clearly the world is good, so its maker must have been concerned with the eternal, not with change [Plato]
310 The creator of the cosmos had no envy, and so wanted things to be as like himself as possible [Plato]
311 The cosmos must be unique, because it resembles the creator, who is unique [Plato]
312 Time came into existence with the heavens, so that there will be a time when they can be dissolved [Plato]
314 Heavenly movements gave us the idea of time, and caused us to inquire about the heavens [Plato]
315 Philosophy is the supreme gift of the gods to mortals [Plato]
316 Music has harmony like the soul, and serves to reorder disharmony within us [Plato]
317 The universe is basically an intelligible and unchanging model, and a visible and changing copy of it [Plato]
318 In addition to the underlying unchanging model and a changing copy of it, there must also be a foundation of all change [Plato]
321 For knowledge and true opinion to be different there must be Forms; otherwise we are just stuck with sensations [Plato]
322 Intelligence is the result of rational teaching; true opinion can result from irrational persuasion [Plato]
324 Before the existence of the world there must have been being, space and becoming [Plato]
325 We must consider the four basic shapes as too small to see, only becoming visible in large numbers [Plato]
326 For relaxation one can consider the world of change, instead of eternal things [Plato]
327 There are two types of cause, the necessary and the divine [Plato]
328 Everything that takes place naturally is pleasant [Plato]
330 No one wants to be bad, but bad men result from physical and educational failures, which they do not want or choose [Plato]
331 Bad governments prevent discussion, and discourage the study of virtue [Plato]
332 One should exercise both the mind and the body, to avoid imbalance [Plato]
334 Only bird-brained people think astronomy is entirely a matter of evidence [Plato]
17085 A good explanation totally rules out the opposite explanation (so Forms are required) [Plato, by Ruben]
11238 Plato and Aristotle take essence to make a thing what it is [Plato, by Politis]
13260 Plato says wholes are either containers, or they're atomic, or they don't exist [Plato, by Koslicki]
11237 Only universals have essence [Plato, by Politis]
556 If there is one Form for both the Form and its participants, they must have something in common [Aristotle on Plato]
13263 We can grasp whole things in science, because they have a mathematics and a teleology [Plato, by Koslicki]
9607 The greatest discovery in human thought is Plato's discovery of abstract objects [Brown,JR on Plato]
557 A Form is a cause of things only in the way that white mixed with white is a cause [Aristotle on Plato]
565 The Forms cannot be changeless if they are in changing things [Aristotle on Plato]
13261 Plato sees an object's structure as expressible in mathematics [Plato, by Koslicki]
13265 Plato was less concerned than Aristotle with the source of unity in a complex object [Plato, by Koslicki]
593 Plato's holds that there are three substances: Forms, mathematical entities, and perceptible bodies [Plato, by Aristotle]
3060 Plato never mentions Democritus, and wished to burn his books [Plato, by Diog. Laertius]
23890 For Plato true wisdom is supernatural [Plato, by Weil]
23891 Two contradictories force us to find a relation which will correlate them [Plato, by Weil]
563 If gods are like men, they are just eternal men; similarly, Forms must differ from particulars [Aristotle on Plato]
14502 Plato's idea of 'structure' tends to be mathematically expressed [Plato, by Koslicki]
20906 Platonists argue for the indivisible triangle-in-itself [Plato, by Aristotle]
17948 Plato's Forms meant that the sophists only taught the appearance of wisdom and virtue [Plato, by Nehamas]
3039 When Diogenes said he could only see objects but not their forms, Plato said it was because he had eyes but no intellect [Plato, by Diog. Laertius]
17947 Plato decided that the virtuous and happy life was the philosophical life [Plato, by Nehamas]
9274 Plato's legacy to European thought was the Good, the Beautiful and the True [Plato, by Gray]
94 Pleasure is better with the addition of intelligence, so pleasure is not the good [Plato, by Aristotle]
2173 As religion and convention collapsed, Plato sought morals not just in knowledge, but in the soul [Williams,B on Plato]
1651 Plato wanted to somehow control and purify the passions [Vlastos on Plato]
3324 Plato's whole philosophy may be based on being duped by reification - a figure of speech [Benardete,JA on Plato]
7503 Plato never refers to examining the conscience [Plato, by Foucault]
1526 Almost everyone except Plato thinks that time could not have been generated [Plato, by Aristotle]
2912 Plato is boring [Nietzsche on Plato]
6015 Plato, unusually, said that theoretical and practical wisdom are inseparable [Plato, by Kraut]