Plato describes the ascent to the Forms in two different ways. In Symposium, Plato describes the ascent to the Forms with reference to an innate instinct to love beauty and in Republic Plato describes the ascent to the Forms using an allegorical story about a prisoner escaping a cave. This essay will be structured into three sections; the first section will present the Symposium’s account for the ascent to the Forms and the second section will present the Republic’s account for the ascent to the Forms. It is my belief that both of these accounts are compatible with each other, so the final section of this essay will go over how both of these accounts compare to each other and work together.
In Symposium Plato describes how the desire for happiness – a kind of love – is innate in all human beings (Symposium, 205a). However, not everyone can be described as being “in love”, but only those people who are devoted to a certain kind of love. A lover is one who seeks out and loves nothing other than the good (Symposium, 205e), and to pursue this good one must “give birth to beauty” (Symposium, 206b). Plato suggests that reproduction is an affair of beauty, and that it is what we aim for as it is …show more content…
That is, the lover loves the form of Beauty as they realize that all beautiful things derive from it. The Form of Beauty is singular in form, unchanging, it exists by itself (and not in relation to anything else), and all beautiful things share in its Form but Beauty itself does not exist in a singular thing in heaven or earth. To love the Form of Beauty is to have happiness, and this is the best way to live according to Plato. There is an impulse for all people to pursue reproduction, and from there they give birth to beauty. Those that can devote themselves to loving beauty – starting with specific beautiful bodies and working up to the Form of Beauty – will achieve the good, and thus happiness. (Symposium,
In Symposium Plato describes how the desire for happiness – a kind of love – is innate in all human beings (Symposium, 205a). However, not everyone can be described as being “in love”, but only those people who are devoted to a certain kind of love. A lover is one who seeks out and loves nothing other than the good (Symposium, 205e), and to pursue this good one must “give birth to beauty” (Symposium, 206b). Plato suggests that reproduction is an affair of beauty, and that it is what we aim for as it is …show more content…
That is, the lover loves the form of Beauty as they realize that all beautiful things derive from it. The Form of Beauty is singular in form, unchanging, it exists by itself (and not in relation to anything else), and all beautiful things share in its Form but Beauty itself does not exist in a singular thing in heaven or earth. To love the Form of Beauty is to have happiness, and this is the best way to live according to Plato. There is an impulse for all people to pursue reproduction, and from there they give birth to beauty. Those that can devote themselves to loving beauty – starting with specific beautiful bodies and working up to the Form of Beauty – will achieve the good, and thus happiness. (Symposium,