Goodness and the good lie at the heart of the thinking-philosophizing of Plato. For Plato, the good is that toward which all acting and thinking should be directed; it is that for which our becoming in the world should unfold; it is that which should decide the acting, existing, and thinking of the mortals.
This way of philosophizing and thinking, of existing in the world, of thinking toward goodness and the idea of the good, is the core of Plato’s political, ethical, ontological, and epistemological writings. Plato sees the good as the “greatest lesson”, the greatest lesson to be learned by the mortal.
Plato says that the good is that which orients the soul toward a state in which the happiness of the mortals becomes a real possibility; a possibility that is attainable and within the reach of our thinking and philosophizing. That is, Goodness, or the idea of the good, makes happiness possible in this world. In the Philebus, it is said that the good is where truth, beauty, and symmetry belong together; it is where they are found together and into each other. Where there is unity, the good is found, according to Plato.
The Good as a Cause in the Philosophizing of Plato
In the Republic, it is argued that the good is not to be found either in pleasure or in knowledge. The good is not also how things appear; the mere appearances of things are not the truths and natures of such things. The good is not the mere beautiful appearances of things; the good is more essential than how things appear; that is, the good is the real and essential goodness of something, the goodness lying at the heart of things, behind all appearances and surfaces.
According to Plato, philosophical education helps human beings to not be entangled in appearances. Philosophy guides the mortals through education to turn their thinking and understanding toward the real reality of things, where the good and goodness dwell.
The good is the fundamental base of all just desiring and thoughtful acting. In other words, that which is intrinsically good is just, beautiful, and closely linked to wisdom and philosophy. This is why the good is that for which we must search; this is why all acting and desiring should happen in the site governed only by goodness.
Justice and beauty must first be known, according to Plato, and they can be known only if the good itself is known. This means that without knowing the idea of the good, the ideas of justice and beauty will forever remain hidden from us. That is, real justice and real beauty belong in the good. Again, that which merely appears as just or beautiful is not justice in itself or real beauty.
Thus, without knowing the idea of the good, knowledge itself becomes useless or not real knowledge. Only by knowing the idea of the good itself, only by knowing the good that is real, the usefulness of that which surrounds the mortals, the goodness and harmony of things, and the beauty of the world will reveal themselves to the mortals.
The good is thus a cause or principle. The sun makes possible, or brings about, truth, knowing, and being. The sun is not being; it is more than being in power and dignity. This means that Plato’s epistemology and ontology are grounded in a principle, which functions as a cause, that is different from knowledge, being, and truth; and exceeds them in terms of beauty. That is, what is more beautiful than knowledge, being, and truth themselves is their cause, that from which they first arise, that because of which they are as such, which is the good itself.
Goodness as a Deciding Principle in the Private and Public Spheres of Life
For Plato, the idea of the good should govern our lives; goodness should be a deciding principle in the private and public spheres of our lives. For example, Plato says that we must think about education and politics in relation to the idea of the good.
The importance of education, for Plato, is that it leads the soul and, through this leading, orients the soul toward the good. That is, education allows the soul to return its attention to that which is really good. Besides, education allows the soul to not be distracted by that which only appears as good, by that which is good only in its appearance, or by the mere appearances of things. Because education is directed toward the innermost being and nature of things, it needs the idea of the good because it itself is turned toward the reality of things. This is what the example of the cave makes apparent regarding how education functions in its turning of the soul toward that which is real in meaning, truth, and being.
Regarding politics and the political sphere, Plato says that the good in the city will always be realized by the philosopher-kings and philosopher-queens because they know that which is really good, that which is good in itself. For Plato, the good in the city is realizable to the extent that the kings and queens are philosophers, that is, to the extent that the kings and queens already have a relation to the good itself through knowledge, real knowledge; that is, knowledge that thinks, questions, and investigates from out of the innermost being and nature of things.