PLATO ON BEAUTY

(428-348)
Background

Phaedo (390 B.C.E) after Meno and before

the Symposium (385 B.C.C) and Republic

- The theory of Forms is introduced in

Phaedo (seemingly already familiar to the
audience of Socrates – Cebes and Simmias)
Background

Phaedo
65-66a – there are realities which the soul
or mind can only grasp by itself, without
interference from the body.
Background
Phaedo
72e-72c – that the human mind or soul had
knowledge of these Forms before birth and
is reminded of them as a result of sense
perceptions, as the particulars imitate the
Forms.
This is what we call learning - recollection
Background

Phaedo
78c-80b – the absolute immutability of the
Forms is recognized, and their nature
contrasted with the physical world.
Phaedo
100b-e – participation in the Forms is the
cause of phenomena and of their qualities,
but the nature of this participation is left
vague and unexplained.

The term eidos and idea are not used of the

Forms until 103b, when the explanation has
been completed.

Thereafter, they are used freely.

Phaedo

The soul in Phaedo is a non-composite

unity, and this is emphasized and indeed is
used to support the argument for its
immortality (78cff) and we soon find that
the soul is in fact the mind or intellect only.
 PHAEDO
• MIND or
SOUL • INTELLECT

• PASSIONS

BODY • PLEASURES
• PAINS
• SENSES
Phaedo
The struggle between body and soul is
expressed in the strongest terms.
The soul is the part of man that can
apprehend the Forms and the aim of
philosopher is to “purify” his soul by
freeing it as far as possible from any bodily
interference, in order to attain knowledge
of true reality, that is, of the Forms.
Phaedo

Indeed, this purification cannot be

fully attained until the separation is
complete after death, when the
immortal soul, alone itself, is able
to acquire that knowledge.
TWO THEMES IN PHAEDO
We live in a hallows of the earth and are
ignorant of the splendor of its real
surface and of the purer life there
Describes what happens to immortal
souls after death
 REPUBLIC

THE SOUL HAS 3 PARTS:

REASONABLE FEELINGS OR PASSIONATE

PART SPIRITED PART PART
Republic
Each part of the soul has its own desires
and its own pleasures, and the aim now
becomes harmony among the different
parts, always under the direction of
reason, which remains the noblest part
of man, the only part that can acquire
knowledge of the Forms and, apparently,
the only part that is immortal.
SYMPOSIUM

General theme: on Love

- Each of the characters in the dialogue
gives a speech about love, and the
question of beauty arises because it is
concluded that is the object of love.
SYMPOSIUM

Eryximachus – picks us on a suggestion of

Phaedrus that each person should in turn
make a speech in praise of the god of love.
Phaedrus

Said that love is one of the oldest of the

gods, and the one that does the most to
promote virtue in people.
Pausanias

Drawing a distinction between common love,

which involves simple and mindless desire,
and heavenly love, which always takes place
between a man and a boy. In the case of
heavenly love, the boy, or loved one, sexually
gratifies the man, or lover in exchange for
education in wisdom and virtue.
Eryximachus

the doctor, speaks, suggesting that good

love promotes moderation and orderliness.
Love does not restrict itself to human
interaction, but can be found in music,
medicine, and much else besides.
Aristophanes (comic poet)
Draws an engaging myth that suggests that
we were once all twice the people we are
now, but that our threat to the gods
prompted Zeus to cut us in half. We have
wondered the earth looking for our other
half in order to rejoin with it and become
whole.
Agathon
Gives a rhetorically elaborate speech that
identifies love as young, beautiful,
sensitive, and wise. He also sees love as
responsible for implanting all the virtues in
us.
(Agathon has spoken about the object of
love rather that love itself.
Socrates (through Diotima)
Love is not a god at all, but is rather a spirit
that mediates between people and the objects
of their desire. Love is neither wise nor
beautiful, but is rather the desire for wisdom
and beauty.
Love expresses itself through pregnancy and
reproduction, either through the bodily kind
of sexual love or through the sharing and
reproduction of ideas.
Socrates (through Diotima)

The greatest knowledge of all, is

knowledge of the Form of Beauty,
which we must strive to attain.
PLOTINUS ON BEAUTY
(204-269/270 A.D.)
- was born in Lycopolis, Egypt
- disciple of Ammonius Sakkas
- Founder of the School of Alexandria
- 244 AD established himself in Rome
(opened a school)
- but only 254 AD when he began to write
- thoughts from Parmenides to Philo in his
thought
- Enneads (six groups of nine)
Review:
Plotinus’ objective is to teach men the path
that leads to intimate union with God.
(“In fact, the goal and end for him
consisted in coming close and uniting
oneself with God, who is above all things”
– Porphyry)
Central to Plotinus philosophy:
1. Absolute separation of the sensible and
the intelligible and the absolute
transcendence of the First Principle
2. Three hypostases (underlying state,
reality) among the intelligible: the One,
the Spirit which proceeds from the
One, and the Soul which proceeds from
the Spirit.
3. The notion of emanation is also central,
everything, including the sensible world,
emanates from the One, and everything
should return to the One.
4. Man can return to the One in this life by
way of mystical union. This mystical union
is man’s last end.
ONE
NOUS OR
SPIRIT

SOUL

MATTER
AND
SENSIBLE
WORLD
The One remains unchanged throughout this process of
emanation. It is not impoverished by generating beings.
What is generated is always inferior to it. The One does
not stand in need of whatever it generates.

Plotinus often uses the term the Good to

designate the One. The One is identical with the
Good; it is the Super-Good.
The Spirit is the locus of the forms. It
possesses the Ideas of all things, and
hence, constitutes the intelligible ideas
does not undermine the unity of the Spirit,
for he conceives these Ideas as intelligible
and intelligent at the same time: Ideas are
found in the Spirit, and at the same time,
they constitute the Spirit.
The procession of the Soul from the Spirit is
similar to the procession of the Spirit from
the One.

The Soul is the one who produces and

governs things. The Soul produces sensible
things as the result of contemplating the
intelligible world.
Some concepts:
Forms
Mysticism
One
The primary focus of this philosophy is the One
which is the source of all things.
Plotinus’ mysticism emphasizes even more strongly
than Plato’s philosophy the illusoriness of the
world of sense.
Plotinus accepted Plato’s theory of
Forms and holds that the world of
sense to some limited degree
“reflects” and thereby reveals the
Forms to contemplation.
The experience of beauty itself is
not a sensuous experience but an
intellectual one.
Note: Notion of contemplation as a
central idea in the theory of beauty
and consequently, in the theory of
aesthetic experience.
Enneads
Eight Tractate (Intellectual Beauty)
“It concerns us, then, to try to see and say, for
ourselves and as far as such matters may be told,
how the Beauty of the divine Intellect and of the
Intellectual Cosmos may be revealed to
contemplation.” p. 422
Plotinus spoke of contemplation as
a kind of meditation in which a
person has as the object of his
awareness some non-sensuous
entity.
The most pervasive and important
result of the theories of Plato and
Plotinus was the establishment of
the notion of contemplation
- as a central idea in the theory
of beauty and consequently, in the
theory of aesthetic experience.
Almost all aesthetic theories have
maintained in one way or another
that the experience of beauty or,
more generally, aesthetic
experience involves contemplation.
Note:
There seems to be two senses of
contemplation:
1. non-sensuous object
2. Sensuous object – object of the
world of sense
Some experience of art and nature are properly
contemplative:
Example listening to religious music or looking at
a statue of Buddha.

But a great many of our experiences of art and

nature are not contemplative – they are gay,
spirited, titillating, humorous, etc.