An Intellectual Knowledge of Good in Plato’s Republic
Socrates might be a wise philosopher but one of his ideas strikes me as particularly naive. In the allegory of the cave, he tells Glaucon that "in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort [·] and that this is the power upon which he [the intellectual] would act rationally" (517b-c). In other words, he seems to be implying that knowledge of goodness is a sufficient condition for being good. A person who has seen what goodness is will henceforth act in a way that is good. Is this belief justified? For instance, we sometimes do things that we know are not good but we do them nonetheless and feel guilty after that. If, as such cases imply, knowledge of goodness is not a sufficient condition for being good, then Plato's dream of a utopia ruled by philosopher-kings could well be a nightmare. The philosophers who are supposed to have attained the "idea of good" (and are thus privileged to hold the citizens together "by persuasion and necessity" [519e]) might turn out to be dictators.
What is this idea of good which Socrates is talking about? According to him, it is the "universal author of all things beautiful and right" and the "source of reason and truth in the intellectual" (517c). But it does not make any sense to me that a mere idea alone can produce great achievements with attributes like beauty, justice, reason and truth. Could it be that my interpretation of Socrates' "idea of good" as a mere idea is mistaken? Perhaps what Socrates means is more than just an intellectual idea of good. Perhaps what he means when he says that one sees the idea of good is that one experiences goodness itself directly. In that case, se...
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... he really has no solid evidence to back him up. If there is no evidence to show that the capacity for goodness is innate in human beings and that people who have seen what goodness is will want to be good, then there is also no justification for the belief that attaining the idea of good is sufficient for being good.
Basically, Plato's vision of utopia lies on the fundamental premise that the philosopher who has seen the light will "either in public or private life" fix his eye on this light (517c). In other words, he believes that the philosopher who has attained the idea of good will necessarily become good. But there is no justification for such a belief (at least not in the allegory) and hence, his idea is not obviously sound.
Work Cited
Plato. Republic. Trans. Benjamin Jowett. 8 Jan. 2001. .
Nothing in the world – indeed even beyond the world – can possibly be conceived which could be called good with qualification except good will (Kant 61).
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First of all, to debate this we must understand what “good” is. Is “good” fairness, or being kind to other? One interesting definition is Aristotle’s, who proposed that how good something is depends on how well it performs it’s function. For example, since knives are meant to cut and sharp knives cut well, a sharp knife is a good knife. In reality, we all have different concepts of what good is. If you look at people like Hitler, you