Presented with two vastly differing definitions of the word, the reader is compelled to reexamine their own personal meaning of the term and reinterpret it un light of Plato’s extended metaphor. Plato’s Philosopher-Kings find happiness where no other could, in the depths of darkness and comparative depravity, they cling to the forms, their conceptions of all that is beautiful, just and virtuous. Rather than seeking happiness in the material realm, the philosophers find it in the intelligible. There are three components in the human soul: Appetite (that which seeks pleasure), Spirit (that which seeks honor) and Reason (that which seeks truth) (Plato 126). In a just and – in Plato’s view – happy individual, Reason rules over the Appetite and Spirit (Plato 131). Since it is the philosopher who possesses the strongest sense of Reason, it is ultimately the philosopher, and only the philosopher, who is able to achieve the ultimate form of
Presented with two vastly differing definitions of the word, the reader is compelled to reexamine their own personal meaning of the term and reinterpret it un light of Plato’s extended metaphor. Plato’s Philosopher-Kings find happiness where no other could, in the depths of darkness and comparative depravity, they cling to the forms, their conceptions of all that is beautiful, just and virtuous. Rather than seeking happiness in the material realm, the philosophers find it in the intelligible. There are three components in the human soul: Appetite (that which seeks pleasure), Spirit (that which seeks honor) and Reason (that which seeks truth) (Plato 126). In a just and – in Plato’s view – happy individual, Reason rules over the Appetite and Spirit (Plato 131). Since it is the philosopher who possesses the strongest sense of Reason, it is ultimately the philosopher, and only the philosopher, who is able to achieve the ultimate form of