Overview
I'm working on a philosophy writing question and need a sample draft to help me learn.
Consider the following quote from Plato in the dialogue theSymposium:
“this beauty will not show itself to him like a face…or any bodily thing at all, nor as a discourse or science, nor indeed as residing in anything…in earth or heaven…but being by itself with itself always in simplicity, while all the beautiful things elsewhere partake of this beauty (209c).
In this quote Plato is describing Beauty as a form. Explain what a form is and what the relation of the form of beauty would have to all beautiful things in the physical world. Explain why the idea of the forms and metaphysics is important to Plato. Contrast Plato’s focus on metaphysics in the Republic with Socrates’ attitude to metaphysics in the Apology. What is Socrates’ main concern in doing philosophy and why does he not do metaphysics? Finally, what is Plato’s view of the three loves? What are they and how are they ranked in value? What type of love should we strive for and why. What type of beauty is most deserving of love—the physical beauty of another’s body or Beauty itself? Why does Plato think the highest love would give us the most happiness?