Plato's Sun-Like Good
Dialectic in the Republic

Table of Contents

Part 1. Approaching the Sun-Good Analogy:
1.1 Introductory
1.2 The philosopher-rulers' intellectual task
1.3 'The most important thing to learn': Between plural and singular
1.4 What further knowledge does the longer way achieve?
Part 2. The Form of the Good and Knowledge:
2.1 Sun, cave, and sun again
2.2 Connecting sun and line
2.3 Higher and lower intellectual levels
2.4 Mathematical versus dialectical hypotheses
2.5 Saphēneia
2.6 The form of the good as non-hypothetical principle
2.7 Dialectic and the good: Some questions
2.8 The role of the form of the good in dialectic
2.9 Some objections and replies
2.10 Textual counterevidence
2.11 The non-hypothetical principle as first premiss?
2.12 The form of the good as object of definition?
2.13 Dialectic and experience
2.14 Diagrams, dialectic, and context
2.15 Dialectic in government
2.16 Not rigorous enough?
2.17 Why is dialectic cognitively superior to mathematics?
2.18 Why are we shown so little about dialectic in the Republic?
2.19 True philosophers versus sight-lovers
2.20 Criteria and scope of 'good'
2.21 Main positions of Parts 1 and 2
Part 3. The Form of the Good and Being:
3.1 Preliminaries
3.2 First proposal
3.3 Interim discussion of 505a2-4
3.4 Second proposal
3.5 Perfectionist accounts
3.6 System accounts
Part 4. Various Further Questions:
4.1 Ambiguity of 'the good' (I)
4.2 Ambiguity of 'the good' (II)
4.3 Why the mathematical education?
4.4 Cosmology, theology
Part 5. Winding Up.

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• Front Matter (129 KB)
• Table of Contents (46 KB)