Dialogues By Plato - Book Report/Review Example

Vice Introduction The Meno, Phaedo, and Republic refer to the ancient philosopher Socrates’ dialogues, which got written by Plato, another ancient philosopher and thinker in Greek history. In these dialogues written by Plato, Socrates through conversations provides explanations on different subjects such as; justice, virtue, the soul, and wisdom among others. It must be noted that Plato uses Socrates as his mouthpiece in the discussions provided in the dialogues. In Meno, Socrates provides insight on the definition of virtue, and whether it can get learned through teaching. Phaedo, which got written as Socrates neared his death focuses on the topic of the immortality of the soul. The Republic presents one of Plato’s longest works and gets divided into various sections. The republic focuses on defining justice and the characteristics and order of a just man or society. Using these dialogues as pretexts, this paper will aim at comparing and contrasting the explicit and implicit explanations of vice as they get shown in the dialogues. Meno and vice In Meno, Socrates does not speak about vice explicitly. Vitue is an opposite of vice. By understanding virtue, then one can decipher the meaning of vice in his or her society. In this dialogue, Socrates discusses vice implicitly by defining what virtue is and whether it gets taught or not. Meno, in a conversation with Socrates, asks him to define the meaning of virtue. Socrates in a typical fashion gets to answer Meno by posing questions to him. Socrates refutes the idea that there exist different virtues for different people. Virtue is all similar regardless of age or gender (Plato, William & Matthew, 2008). Virtue is something that gets shared by all humans and cannot be taught. This dialogue questions on actions as to whether actions such as encouraging or training people to behave and do better in the society is appropriate. This dialogue ends by Socrates claiming that virtue is inborn. Virtue does not come by human nature or teaching. The soul only remembers what virtue is since its immortal. There is no clear description provided for the meaning of virtue in the dialogue. What Socrates tasks the reader and Meno is to define and get guided by the universal meaning of virtue and not self implication of the word. From the dialogue, Socrates insists that all men desire pleasurable things and no one usually wants anything bad (Plato, William & Matthew, 2008). Any human being who desires a dreadful thing does not understand the implications of what he desires and their ramifications on others. Phaedo and vice In this dialogue, Plato does not explain the meaning of vice explicitly. He rather proposes theories on why the soul is immortal and in so doing gives a little peek on the subject of vice (Plato, William & Matthew, 2008). This dialogue focuses on conversations between Socrates and one of his student’s, Phaedo as well as other friends. Socrates explains that a philosopher should anticipate death. This will set the soul free from bodily needs. Socrates proposes that the soul, unlike the body is immortal. In proving that the soul is immortal, Socrates employs different theories. The most significant of this theory’s that touches on vice is the theory of forms (Plato, William & Matthew, 2008). Through Socrates, Plato instigates through the theory of forms that nothing in the world is perfect or permanent (Plato, William & Matthew, 2008). Plato pronounces that in the world, there are instances where justice and beauty are flawed. Despite the world offering instances of flawed justice and beauty, deep down human being have a sense of what real justice and beauty are like (Plato, William & Matthew, 2008). According to Plato, there is a world that contains perfect ideals for justice, beauty, and other forms of life. Justice found in the world is not real, but there is a world where perfect justice emanates. This dialogue describes vice through the eyes of justice and forms. It does not detail on vice directly, but it implies that the world is imperfect and thus contains vice. Republic and vice In the Republic, Plato advances more argument on vice explicitly. He directly pinpoints and discusses on evil. Plato discusses the three main parts of the soul; appetite, spirit and reason (Plato, William & Matthew, 2008). Each of these three parts of the soul has its own virtue. According to Plato, goodness and justice comes from the correct balance of these three parts. Plato states that everything has a specific evil. To justify this, he states that all the three parts have their virtues and vices. The vice of the appetitive part of the soul include greed, lust, and gluttony. The vices of the spirited include anger and envy. In the republic, Plato also suggests that something’ specific evil can destroy it. As an example, the evil of the appetitive part of the soul is greed and lust (Plato, William & Matthew, 2008). Only the virtue of the appetitive part of the soul which is temperance can only help destroy these evils. Temperance can help one exhibit self-restraint and moderation against the evils of greed and lust. Vice is an evil of the soul according to Plato (Plato, William & Matthew, 2008). As the soul contains three parts, appetitive, reason and spirit, so does it contain evil. The three parts make the soul possess evil by its own nature. Evil is prevalent within the soul, and only it’s specific attributes help to conceal its vices. Plato also suggests that evil cannot kill your soul (Plato, William & Matthew, 2008). This is so since the soul is immortal and can overcome the physical nature of death. The soul gets freed from the body at death, thus vice cannot kill it. Conclusion Plato provides implicit explanations of vice in Meno and Phaedo. He asserts vice as something unjust in the imperfect world (Plato, William & Matthew, 2008). In the perfect world, there is ideal justice, and it is the world where the soul goes when the body dies. Plato’s implicit explanation of vice in these dialogues revolves around Socrates explanation on the immortality of the soul. Plato goes to explain vice further in the republic. He proposes that vice is existent in the soul and is specific to something in the soul. Only a certain attribute of the soul can help contain a specific vice. He also implies that vice cannot kill the soul as the soul is immortal. In the explanation of vice, Plato takes a deeper look into the obvious meaning of the term. Reference Plato, W. H. (2008). Great Dialogues of Plato:Complete Text of The Republic, The Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Ion, Meno, Symposium. New York: New Amer Library Classics. Read More