Plato's Symposium 2

In class we discussed briefly Plato's theory of forms where the good consisted in all of these different universal concepts such as piety, wisdom, friendship, temperance, justice, and beauty. The soul knows the good and then descends to the body after it loses its wings forgetting the truth of the good. By participating in these different things, we can come to know the good better so that we can share it with others and return to the good as well. Some think that all of these things act as separate parts of the good and others say each one is the good itself. I think that both of these statements are correct and do not have to be opposed to each other.

It seems that all of these universal concepts are attached to the good in some way because we pursue them even in our everyday life. They bring us closer to the good and help orient ourselves out of the cave. In a way these things are the good, but by themselves we can only get a good understanding of a portion of the good. We are each interested in different parts and this part can draw us into the good so that we develop a desire to expand our knowledge of the good to other forms as well. In this way the different forms act as parts to makeup the good. Therefore, it seems like the different forms act both as parts of a whole, but also as the whole itself to the interested individual so that they may explore the good in its entirety. To some extent, God is much like the good and how we interact with it. We understand parts of God and this limited knowledge spurs us on to learn more about God by instilling in us a desire. Do you think Plato's forms can be interpreted in a sense as both parts and whole together?

-BaylorBear16