In Plato’s philosophy, the highest good is the Form of the Good (or simply the Good). It is the ultimate principle in his metaphysical system ?

[Divine Power]

In Plato’s philosophy, the highest good is the Form of the Good (or simply the Good). It is the ultimate principle in his metaphysical system ?

 

[Adolf Hulkler]

You need to consider gods refractory period before knowing what is good.

 

[Key the Metal Shitposter]

Thats not actually a question, can you restate it? Idk what you mean.

 

[Narrowback]

The Platonic Good branches to an extent into Platonic Ethics but its also just as fair to say its the ultimate principle in Platonic Metaphysics, yes. In modern scholarship there is significant argument that it is more relevant to ethics but that falls into a sort of Post-Modern Neo-Platonism that I think the man would have deeply disagreed with. If you want something more generalized to term his ultimate principle I would say it was just the Platonic form as a concept.

In my opinion, it isn't exactly the Good itself which I view as the ultimate metaphysical principle in Platonism, but rather the ineffable nature it achieves through its consequent transcendence of form.

 

[Πλάτωνας]

Είσαι αράπης και δεν θα είχα σεξ μαζί σου.

 

[herefortheactualthreads]

Yes, in Plato’s philosophy, the Form of the Good is indeed the highest good and serves as the ultimate principle in his metaphysical system. Here's a breakdown of what that means:

1.​

• In Plato’s theory of Forms, every material thing participates in a corresponding ideal Form (e.g., the Form of Beauty, the Form of Justice).
• Above all Forms, however, is the Form of the Good, which is the source of all other Forms. Plato presents it as the ultimate cause of being, intelligibility, and value.

2.​

• In The Republic (Book VI), Plato famously uses the Analogy of the Sun to explain the Form of the Good:
  
  • Just as the sun makes physical things visible and causes them to grow,
  • The Form of the Good makes intelligible objects knowable and gives them their being and truth.
  • It is beyond being, meaning it is even more fundamental than existence itself (in a metaphysical sense).

3.​

• The Good is the ultimate object of knowledge; only through knowledge of the Good can one have true understanding.
• Ethically, the Good is the goal of the soul and the basis for justice, virtue, and the proper ordering of the state and individual.

4.​

• Plato sometimes leaves the nature of the Good mysterious, but he emphasizes that all knowledge and reality depend upon it.
• It is what gives structure and coherence to the world of Forms, which in turn structure the material world.

---

Summary:​

Yes, in Plato's metaphysics, the Form of the Good is the ultimate principle—it is the source of all reality, truth, and value, making it central not just to his metaphysics, but also to his ethics and epistemology.

 

[deleuzeon]

I wouldn't spend a lot of time unpacking Platonic metaphysics. The guy thought, for example, that if Socrates could explain math to a slave, then that was QED proof that all knowledge is actually remembered from past lives. Batshit insane. Ancient metaphysics is all garbage.

 

[Unarmed Gunman]

Plato was a pederast.

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

I do think Plato was on to something with the concept that the ideal is more real than the physical. Consider the following.

Everything we know about reality is filtered through our consciousness. Everything about the physical world is interpreted through that lens. It's the only thing we can actually be sure of. I am sure that I'm a conscious being. I'm not completely, totally, 100% sure that I'm not a brain in a vat. I'm 99.9999999% sure, but not absolutely. Or more realistically, there's a small possibility that I'm only dreaming that I'm posting on KF right now. What might that say about the universe we live in? Maybe mind is primary, and matter is secondary.

I don't mean that in a postmodernist way, like human thought literally creates reality or something like that. The physical world is definitely real. Just not quite AS real.

 

[Divine Power]

it is part of the lower realm and not the actual form. You can only occasionally glimpse at the true form from this lower plane.