Combining Texts

Ideas for 'The Social Contract (tr Cress)', 'The Logic of Infinity' and 'The Republic'

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4 ideas

7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 3. Being / c. Becoming
9862 To become rational, philosophers must rise from becoming into being [Plato]
     Full Idea: Philosophers must rise up out of becoming and grasp being, if they are ever to become rational.
     From: Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE], 525b)
     A reaction: I am never quite sure what 'being' means in such contexts, and it seems suffused with mysticism. In Plato's case, it is obviously related to what is unchanging, but why would something lack 'being', just because it underwent change?
7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 3. Being / f. Primary being
21818 Being depends on the Good, which is not itself being, but superior to being [Plato]
     Full Idea: Not only do the objects of knowledge owe their being known to the good, but their being is also due to it, although the good is not being, but superior to it in rank and power.
     From: Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE], 509b)
     A reaction: I was surprised to find that in Plotinus the One is not being, because it is the source of being, and thus superior to being. Then a footnote sent me here, and I realise that Plato thought that the Form of the Good is superior to Being.
7. Existence / B. Change in Existence / 1. Nature of Change
2061 The best things (gods, healthy bodies, good souls) are least liable to change [Plato]
     Full Idea: The best things (such as a god, a healthy body, or a good soul) are least liable to alteration or change.
     From: Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE], 380e)
7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 3. Reality
6562 Plato's reality has unchanging Parmenidean forms, and Heraclitean flux [Plato, by Fogelin]
     Full Idea: For Plato, the intelligible world - the world of eternal and unchanging forms - is Parmenidean; the world of appearances - the world of flux we inhabit - is Heraclitean.
     From: report of Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE]) by Robert Fogelin - Walking the Tightrope of Reason Ch.1
     A reaction: Parmenides said reality is 'One'; Heraclitus said reality is 'flux'. This is a nice summary of Plato's view, and encapsulates two key influences on Plato, though the mathematical reality of Pythagoras should also be mentioned on the 'forms' side.