Platos Ideals and Teachings: Ethical Standards and Objective Scientific Knowledge - Research Paper Example

Plato’s teachings have been among the most influential in the history of Western civilization. If Plato’s Republic has a single unifying theme, it is to show that “the life of the just person is intrinsically preferable to any other life.” (Partridge, n.d.). In order to prove this, Socrates is made to investigate the concept of justice, and just what this term means, and all relevance related to this. After an elaborate effort which spans over three of the ten books of the Republic, Socrates and his two interlocutors discover just what justice really is.

“Justice is shown to be a property of a soul in which its three parts do their proper work and refrain from doing the job of another part.” (Partridge, n.d.). Plato’s account initiated the long tradition of reflection that later interacted with the Jewish, Christian, and later Islamic Biblical concepts of creation. These formed the foundation for the conclusion that organic beings were the product of external creative design. One common meaning of ‘teleology’ as encountered in discussions of the evolution of Darwin – that of externally imposed design by an intelligent agency (demiurge, nature, God) – dates from Plato’s account.

Plato is deeply impressed with the order and beauty he observes in the universe, and his project in the dialogue is to explain that order and beauty. The universe, or so he proposes, is the product of rational, purposive, and beneficent agency. The Forms assure order and intelligence in a world that is in a state of constant flux, among other things. They provide the pattern from which the world of sense derives its meaning.