PHI201: Plato’s Ladder of Love- Argumentative Essay- Philosophy Assignment Solution

Question: Argumentative Essay Writing

Philosophy Assignment

Topic: The role that the Good plays throughout Plato’s ladder of Love

The below piece emphasizes on Plato’s “the Good” or “ Form of Good” by exploring the functions of good in Plato’s ladder of love. As opposed to the traditional interpretation that details the Good to be a rational order or the unity of forms, this academic piece maintains that Good has been explained to mean the exclusive supreme principle that resembles the top position in a hierarchy but is not bordered by the entire structure. The article maintains that “the Good” in Plato’s ladder of love has several interpretations and can be deemed as the apriori commencement of education.By reconstructing the Good or the Form of Good in a hierarchy based on power, the only summit should be the Good or the Form of Good. However, what consists of the Good has been debated and discussed for a long time mainly because Plato has never proposed a definite meaning of Good in his Ladder of Love. Moreover, the Ladder of Love has provided us paradoxical connotations about the Good. Its existence can be sensed by it is not perceived by human beings. Hence, the concept of the Good is regarded to be mystical by Platonists. The common them and the fundamental problem in Platonism is the status enjoyed by the Good in Plato’s writings. Plato believed that only the Good makes goods good. In the Ladder of Love, Plato had a clear conception of the Good. A meaning of the Good that can be interpreted by Plato’s writings is its transience towards truth, intellect and knowledge of all forms. In Plato’s Ladder of Love, the path taken by the souls who come down from the visible to the intelligible world can be compared with the captives walking from the Cave to the world. Moreover, as they are walking the sun’s rays fall upon them. When the captive looks at the sun’s image first and then gets used to its brightness, only then does the captive try to look directly at the sun. Hence, in the boundaries of the intellect, the final object that can be witnessed is the Good. Plato’s meaning of the Good can be concluded as a holistic interpretation of truth and knowledge.Sophist’s teachings have been criticised to justify falsity by confusing truth and disregards anything that is actually good. This digression has been used by Plato to compare rhetoric and philosophy. Hence, Plato interprets the Good to act as the principle of unity by providing the components of knowledge having a rational order. In the Ladder of Love, Plato commences his discussion of the Good with politics. Hence, the interpretation of the Good in the aspect of political philosophy can be interpreted as the distinctive foundation of individual and common good. In still another interpretation of the Good, Plato argues that the highest good is to hold optimum levels of virtuousness and the quality to remain virtuous through one’s life. In the light of the practical viewpoint, it should be possible to access the Good only by means of virtuous practice, ethical education and philosophical study. However the Good in itself presents in itself a paradox by having the tension between the unknown and the known. When the soul of a human being reaches the ultimate level of intellect, it is supposed to be nearest to the Good. However, in all totality, the individual’s soul or the mind should be enlightened or transformed. Thus, Plato’s the Good in his Ladder of Love is devoid of definition and this makes it to contain several interpretations. From a practical viewpoint, the Good can be said to be open and abundant. This means that the Good does not have any static content and neither is it definite in nature.

The Good has been discussed by Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle maintained that the Good is the fundamental end to the actions of people and the object of political science. Several individuals believe the Good to be interpreted as happiness, but Plato and his followers believe that the Good itself make the goods good. This idea of the Good as proposed by Plato has been severely criticized by Aristotle on the basis of its universal aspect of goodness being absolute and separate and hence being inaccessible to human beings. Aristotle preserved the position of the Good but criticized the interpretations of the Good proposed by Plato on the grounds of being indefinite. Hence, the construct of the Good in Plato’s Ladder of Love has been the centre of controversy with respect to the problem of the Good as introduced by Plato.

Plato’s idea of the Good in the Ladder of Love is a holistic interpretation of intellect, knowledge and truth. In other words, the Good has been compared with virtue and in other words it has been compared with the qualities reminiscent in the Supreme Being. Aristotle accepted the idea of the Good but refuted its several interpretations to mean knowledge, truth and its comparison with God. However, the practical interpretations of the Good to mean a personal God manipulating the affairs of human beings have been totally ignored by his critics. Thus, the construct of the Good to play several roles is justified and hence this connotation cannot be absolute as maintained by Aristotle.

The role of the Good played in Plato’s Ladder of Love has been examined in the above paper. In this the Good has been used to mean virtuousness, truth, knowledge and intellect. The Good has also being linked to play a crucial role in political science as it stands for the unified foundation of individual and common good. Hence, the way to the Good is a system of practice and study and does not have an absolute or straightforward learning to some concrete answer. Thus, the Good has not definition and no proper description. Hence, the Good has been interpreted in diverse forms and hence the existence of multiple forms of goodness. Hence, the Good can be linked with the One or have the perfect unity.