Derek Holmes Short essay #2

The Stars

In the United States Air force, the core values are integrity first, service before self, and excellence in all you do. These first two core values are internal decisions that one can make , but one needs additional understanding to be excellent. Plato is initially interested in internal harmony, but he later examines external sources in relation to justice.  In the Republic, Socrates analyzes the soul and the city “with a view of the good” because excellence can only be achieved when looking from this perspective. Socrates illustrates that the good is the source of the truth and wisdom needed for excellence. Why do some souls and cities flourish while others fail to reach their potential? This is a perplexed question that Socrates answers. Plato illustrates how excellence is not achievable in the just city or the just soul without the good. When navigating a ship, someone occasionally climbs up high to get a better vantage point. The good offers a similar insight to an individual for guidance towards excellence.

What do all excellent writers, musicians, actors, etc. have in common? Socrates asserts that only with a view of the good can one attain this wisdom. For the city, soul, family, or athlete to become excellent and flourish it must be guided by the good. The allegory of the cave offers profound insight into the nature of the good, but the ship of state initially shows the function and necessity of the good. This model that consists of the star gazer, ship owner, and the sailor. The sailor represents desire. The ship-owner represents the spirit and the stargazer represents the mind. The stargazer steers the ship by the guidance of the stars which are representative of the the good. The owner listens to the stargazer and the sailors’ listen to the ship owner. All the while, the stargazer has his eyes fixed on the stars or the good to navigate the ship. This model that Socrates creates is an analogy of the soul must be guided by the good. In a just soul, the highest part of the model is focused on the good. Even in the city soul analogy, Socrates intends for the city to be ruled by philosophers or lovers of wisdom who have insight to see the good. He says, “Will they disbelieve us when we tell them that no state can be happy which is not designed by artists who imitate a heavenly pattern” (chapter 5).  A family consists of a man, a woman, and a child. A football team has the head coach, assistant coaches and the players. Businesses consist of the CEO, management, and employees. In the Republic, the soul consists of the mind, spirit, and desire and the city consists of the guardian’s auxiliaries and farmers. Socrates asserts that if any of these entities would be excellent it must be lead with a view of the good. To see the good there is a need for philosophy. The need for some part of an entity to see the bigger picture and understand the importance of having a vision.

Socrates uses the allegory of the cave as an illustration to show how the good is imperative to achieving excellence.  The light that shines into the cave is a representation of the good. The cave is a prison and represents our world of sight or the physical world. The prisoners are in chains and can only see shadows that are created by the light. Socrates initially explains what would happen if the chains of the prisoners could be loosed, and examines the nature of enlightenment.  He says that, “the knowable the last thing to be seen, and that with considerable effort, is the idea of the good; but once seen, it must be concluded that this in fact the cause of all that is right and fair in everything, in the visible it gave birth to light and its sovereign; in the intelligible, itself sovereign, it provided truth and intelligence and the man who is going to act prudently in private or in public must see it” (517a). However ,the prisoners are in chains and can only see images. The chains are representative of the things of the physical world that prevent us from seeing the good. Injustice often prevents us from seeing the good and justice helps to see the good so that an excellent and a flourishing life possible. Justice loosens the prisoner’s chains so that they may see the good while injustice tightens the chains. With no injustice, the prisoner would notice that the flames are mere images and would turn around to the true light. However, in the real world we cannot be fully freed from the chains. We are constantly fighting for the chains to be loose so that we may turn our heads to see the true light.

Furthermore, Socrates feels obligated to lead people to the good so that there can be excellence and justice. Socrates understands that to achieve excellence people need the good to guide them. Socrates says, “the instrument with which each learns must be turned around from that which is coming into being together with the whole soul until it is able to endure looking at the brightest part of that which is. And we affirm that is the good, don’t we”(518c)? Socrates uses the cave to illustrate that people must be lead from the cave to see the good for themselves or educated in right opinion by those who live with a view of the good. Socrates says, “are we to do them an injustice, and make them live a worse life when a better life is possible for them” (519e). In his essay entitled, The Role of the Good, Nicholas Denyer analyzes forms, images, and the good. Socrates describes people who are chained and can only see images from the reflections of true forms. Denyer says of the images, “think of reflections generally as partial and distorted likeness” (307). The good can be described as a reflection or a substance that is diluted from it most pure form. Socrates says that nothing incomplete is the measure of anything. To add to this the Denyer says that the visible realm itself is only an imperfect likeness of the intelligent realm that is governed by the good” (307).

            Essentially, the universe can be made dense enough to fit in the palm of the hand. Matter cannot be created nor destroyed, it only changes forms. In the same way the good is immutable but can come in different forms and concentrations. The good is “an overwhelming beauty “and “it provides knowledge and truth but is itself beyond them in beauty” (509a). The good “provides truth to the things unknown and gives the power to the one who knows” (508d). To be achieve excellence one must have a view of the good or have right opinion from one who has seen the good. The good is diluted and everything we see are potencies that come from the good. The more highly concentrated the good is, the more excellent the visible becomes. Socrates says, “Lifting up the brilliant beams of their souls they must be compelled to look toward that which provides light for everything. Once they see the good itself, they must be compelled, each in his turn, to use it as a pattern for ordering city, private men, and themselves for the rest of their lives (540b). The good is awarded to those “souls that are eager to spend their time above” and is the source of justice, beauty and all things good. The good is seen by the stargazer who occasionally falls into a well because he is blinded by the sublime brilliance of the good.