Being vs Becoming Plato

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We have chosen to write our essay on the ideas and reasoning (being vs. becoming) of Plato. (Essay #1) Virtue consists in the harmony of the human soul with the universe of ideas, which assure order, intelligence, and the pattern to a world in constant flux. The soul, on this view, has three parts, which correspond to three different kinds of interest, three kinds of virtues, and three kinds of personalities, depending on which part of the soul is dominant. This being the three kinds of social classes that should be based on the three personalities, interests, and virtues—shown below in a chart. This relates to the same ideas we discussed in class, the pyramid, based upon controlling self-esteem and upon those two controlling appetite. This leads us into the being vs. becoming state.

Soul Interest Class Virtue

Reason Knowledge Philosophers Wisdom

Spirit Honor Warriors Courage

Desire Pleasures Commoners Temperance

From this desire for wholeness comes the famous Platonic theory of ideas. The world about us is imperfect. It is constantly coming into being and going out of being. It seems impossible that anything, which really is, should be part of such a world. When we look at a beautiful girl, we cannot say that either of them is perfectly beautiful. Yet, there is something beautiful about them. What is it that makes them beautiful, so beautiful that it never can change? The wholly beautiful is the essence of Idea of what it is to be beautiful. It is Absolute Beauty. In the same way, things are true because the Idea of truth is present in them. A chair, (as we discussed in class) is a chair because it participates in the essence of chariness, which actually exists beyond the reach of the sensible world. Were there no ideas, there could be no world as we know it.

If we consider Plato’s ideas abstractions, we shall never grasp his meaning. But if we think of how a great artist sometimes manages to catch the vital meaning of an event on his canvas, we are coming closer to Plato’s theory. Take another example, how many of us have known someone for years when, suddenly, when one day something happens, and we see him for the first time as a “real person.” His personality has become alive and full of meaning in a way, which has nothing to do with his appearance or his attitude. Our two minds seem to look directly at one another. We feel we have a real contact with that person.

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