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Single Idea 24286

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / B. Value / 1. Nature of Value / f. Ultimate value]

Full Idea

There's no other medium in which someone who uses the appropriate faculty to see beauty can give birth to true goodness, instead of phantom goodness, because it is truth rather than illusion whose company he is in.

Gist of Idea

Perceiving true beauty leads to truth, and hence to goodness

Source

Plato (The Symposium [c.373 BCE], 212a)

A Reaction

This is the core of platonism, where the faculties of love and intellect achieve the truth about beauty, which immediately leads to goodness. I wish I could find a modern way that is less mystical to express this thought. Beauty, truth and goodness.

Book Reference

Plato: 'Symposium', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP 1994], p.56