Single Idea 221

[catalogued under 7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 3. Reality]

Full Idea

The absolute good and the beautiful and all which we conceive to be absolute ideas are unknown to us.

Gist of Idea

Absolute ideas, such as the Good and the Beautiful, cannot be known by us

Source

Plato (Parmenides [c.366 BCE], 134c)

Book Reference

Plato: 'Plato IV (Cratylus,Parmenides,Hippias Maj, Min)', ed/tr. Fowler,H.N. [Harvard Loeb 1926], p.227


A Reaction

These seems to thoroughly pre-empt Plato's Theory of Forms a century before he created it. Which shows (as Simone Weil says) that Plato was just part of a long tradition.