metonymy4u

Plato’s form of the good has haunted the unregenerate west for centuries. The Platonic idea of the good is the notion that there is a necessary entity that imbues all other entities with just being. Not just mere existence, but an existence that is in some sense better than other existences. Nowadays I think we find such a notion both startling and un-necessary. Either that or it is viewed with suspicion by a politically polarized community more intent on rooting out the deep causes of social injustice. Still the intellectual puzzle remains: How would anyone even begin to explain such an understanding of the world? Well, once upon a time, the purpose of life was described not as a search for apps, likes, friends, or downloads but as a search for flourishing, which meant questioning and thinking. Thinking about such questions as: what is the nature of the good life? What is virtue? Justice? Harmony? Knowledge? Humanity? In the context of this search, which has been called “virtue ethics” the notion of the highest good being the search for the good itself would not have raised any eyebrows. In many ways I believe the rationalist ideal of a God which wills the best of all possible worlds is merely an accident of birth. As Plato’s children we had the full genealogy of virtue ethics infused right into our cellular structure. But forgetting this, we built the engine, the machine, and the idea of a life lived merely for the escape of momentary pain, rather than the search for any lasting benefit.