플라톤에서 좋은 것에 관한 연구

Abstract

This study is on the good in Plato. Plato asserted that everyone always pursues what is good for oneself. To pursue what is good for oneself is a matter of what to choose and how to live one's life. Meaning of 'good' can be divided into "excellent" and "beneficial." What "excellent" means is that it is functionally good, like a good house or a good car. "Beneficial" is interpreted on the other hand as that which it is "good for" something, just like saying a vegetarian meal is good for our health. In order to understand the good one must know its context. According to Plato we seek and pursue good things through our action, because we want to be happy. Happiness in Plato's sense is almost equivalent to "acting well,' or "living well," which are related to excellence. When we say something is good, it indicates it has the ability to excel others of its kind. Such ability is called excellence. Someone who is excellent must have excellent soul and cannot but be happy. Man is happy because he is excellent. What is good is beneficial because it brings happiness. According to Plato, only an excellent man can live well. This is equivalent to saying that in order to have a happy life, one must wish to become an excellent person. Because anyone who has excellence is sure to be happy by the definition of excellence and happiness, the most important good among goods is excellence. In Republic sophia, courage, moderation and justice are regarded as main excellences. In Euthydemos sophia or phronesis is said to be the good itself. But in Republic the Idea of the good is said to be the good itself. That is the cause of goodness of all goods and which all rulers is required to know. For that knowledge is necessary to know what things are really good. The essence of sophia is the knowledge of the Idea of the good. Socrates explains the Idea of the Good through his analogies of the sun, line-segment, and the cave. He says that Idea of the Good is the cause of all beings including the sun as well as the cause for all the right things.