Virtue and good: on the evolution of the ethics of Platon

Abstract

Ethics is an essential part of Plato's philosophy, his answer to the crisis of traditional morality that came during his life. This crisis was part of the general crisis of the Athenian polis in the 5th century. BC. The philosopher rethinks the ancient concept of virtue-arete and shows that single virtues are unattainable without philosophical knowledge of them, and this requires the introduction of the concept of general virtue. Such a common virtue in the ethics of Plato becomes the Good, which first acquires a cosmological and metaphysical meaning in the philosophy of Plato, and then becomes the main concept of his political doctrine. In the dialogue “Respublic”, Plato creates a project of an ideal state in which the political order and public morality coincide with the cosmic order. Therefore, E. Voegelin argues that Plato was the first philosopher to create a “cosmic empire” project. However, there is not yet a complete identity of ethics, politics and cosmology in the “Respublic”, because in it individual virtues are completely dissolved in the political order. The author claims that Plato takes the final step in building his ethics in his last dialogue, “Laws”, in which he tries to show the connection between good and individual virtue. This task connects the “Laws” with the “State”, “Timaeus” and Socratic dialogues. Thus, ethics is an integrative element of the entire Platonic philosophy.

Key words: рlatonism, virtue, blessing, ethics, cosmology, political philosophy.