Event Detail

Fri Apr 28, 2023
Dennes Room, Philosophy 234
3–5 PM
Working Group in Ancient Philosophy
Allan Silverman (Ohio State University)
Reason and the Good in Plato’s Republic

This paper explores how, in the Republic, Plato thinks about subjective or mind-dependent (final) and objective or mind-independent (intrinsic) goods. Among the more controversial theses I accept are that: 1) There are a plurality of objective goods in Plato, and a plurality of final goods, things on which we confer final value; 2) Not all objective goods nor all final goods are constituents of happiness, nor are all final goods valued because thought to be constituents of happiness. In this respect, Plato is not a rational eudaimonist. In Plato’s ethics, the Form of the Good is prior to happiness.