In the knowledgeable realm, the form of the good is the last thing to be seen, and it is reached only with difficulty. Once one has seen it, however, one must conclude that it is the cause of all that is correct and beautiful in anything, that it produces both light and its source in the visible realm, and that in the intelligible realm it controls and provides truth and understanding, so that anyone who is to act sensibly in private or public must see it.
—Plato, Parmenides
Daily Reflection
Plato is perhaps the most famous philosopher of all time, in all of the world. He would aggregate and codify complex ideas in a time where this work was largely left to myth and oral traditions. In many ways, he is the grandparent of not only philosophy but philosophical writing.
Ultimately, Plato posited that there was a physical/material self and a spiritual self that belonged to and came from another realm. And because of his position in history, this would h…
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