Plato and the Other Companions of Sokrates, 3rd ed. Volume 1Grote, George
Philosophy
Plato and the Other Companions of Sokrates, 3rd ed. Volume 1
Grote, George
Philosophy, Ancient; Plato; Socrates, 470 BC-399 BC
In Schol. p. 573, a. 18, it is stated that the astronomer Eudoxus was
a hearer both of Plato and of Eukleides.
The account given by Zeller (Phil. der Griech. ii. p. 453, 2nd ed.) of
this latter phase of the Platonic doctrine of Ideas, applies exactly
to that which we hear about the main doctrine of Eukleides. Zeller
describes the Platonic doctrine as being "Eine Vermischung des
ethischen Begriffes vom höchsten Gut, mit dem Metaphysischen des
Absoluten: Der Begriff des Guten ist zunächst aus dem menschlichen
Leben abstrahirt; er bezeichnet das, was dem Menschen zuträglich ist.
So noch bei Sokrates. Plato verallgemeinert ihn nun zum Begriff des
Absoluten; dabei spielt aber seine ursprüngliche Bedeutung noch
fortwährend herein, und so entsteht die Unklarheit, dass weder der
ethische noch der metaphysische Begriff des Guten rein gefasst wird."
This remark is not less applicable to Eukleides than to Plato, both of
them agreeing in the doctrine here criticised. Zeller says truly, that
the attempt to identify Unum and Bonum produces perpetual confusion.
The two notions are thoroughly distinct and independent. It ought not
to be called (as he phrases it) "a generalization of Bonum". There is
no common property on which to found a generalization. It is a forced
conjunction between two disparates.]
[Side-note: Last doctrine of Plato nearly the same as that of
Eukleides.]
This last doctrine of Plato in his later years (which does not appear
in the dialogues, but seems, as far as we can make out, to have been
delivered substantially in his oral lectures, and is ascribed to him
by Aristotle) was nearly coincident with that of Eukleides. Both held
the identity of [Greek: to\ e(/n] with [Greek: to\ a)gatho/n]. This
one doctrine is all that we know about Eukleides: what consequences he
derived from it, or whether any, we do not know. But Plato combined,
with this transcendental Unum = Bonum, a transcendental indeterminate
plurality: from which combination he considered his Ideas or Ideal
Numbers to be derivatives.
[Side-note: Megaric succession of philosophers. Eleian or Eritrean
succession.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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