Plato’s Core Doctrines: Areté, Justice, and the Forms

Posted on Oct 3, 2025 in Philosophy and ethics

Reminiscence and the World of Ideas

The soul has been in the World of Ideas and can remember it through reminiscence. Hence the famous statement: learning is remembering. Using Maieutics (Socratic method), truths that were asleep within us can be extracted. The soul is a receptacle of memory, a memory that comes from a previous life of which we are aware.

The Role of Eros (Love)

Human beings desire what is beautiful and good. The soul yearns for love and momentum back to the intelligible world to which it belongs. Eros, or the romantic impulse, is the projection onto the other, which is a fundamental fact of our being.

The Myth of the Cave

  • The Vision in the Shadow: Chained men are born into certain schemes (their own limited perspective) in which they live and from which they contemplate life.
  • Release: The discovery of another world—things real, light, and air—which are superior to the simple “visions” of images and shadows to which the prisoner was accustomed. This leads to a feeling of solidarity with the poor chained prisoners.

Individual Areté (Virtue)

Areté: The Greek Concept

The Greek word Areté signifies excellence, merit, goodness, or innate qualities highly valued in early Greek culture.

The Platonic Significance of Areté

For Plato, learning human excellence (Areté) is not about dominating others, but about mastering oneself. This mastery is achieved through “knowing oneself.” Areté lies in knowledge, encompassing the four cardinal virtues:

  • Prudence (Wisdom)
  • Temperance
  • Fortitude (Courage)
  • Justice

Plato conceives of virtue as a harmony of the three parts of the soul (the rational, the spirited/irascible, and the appetitive/concupiscible). The rational part must temper the appetitive. Wisdom refers to the knowledge of the Ideas of Justice and the Good.

Can Areté Be Learned?

Learning Areté is linked to remembering (reminiscence). If virtue could be taught like mathematics, it would be a science. However, there are virtuous parents who are unable to pass on virtue to their children. Therefore, Plato suggests that Areté is both a divine gift and a true opinion.

Plato’s Political Theory

Justice as the Ideal of Community

Plato’s clear idea of justice is that “the one who governs does not care for their own sake, but to ensure the good of the governed.” For this reason, men do not accept government for money or honors, as they do not want to be labeled as mercenaries. The state is a reflection of the citizen, aiming for social harmony.

Levels of State Organization

Plato maintains that the organization of the state mirrors the division of the individual soul. The state is divided into three classes:

  1. Leaders (Rulers/Philosopher Kings): The highest level. Their mission is always to legislate justice.
  2. Guards (Auxiliaries): Their mission is to defend the state.
  3. Producers (Farmers, Merchants, Craftsmen): Their task is to provide the economic foundation of the polis, supporting the other two classes.

The Political Regimes (Degeneration)

Plato describes the degeneration of political systems:

  1. Aristocracy: The most perfect regime. It sets the balance between social classes and is based on ability (rule by the best).
  2. Timocracy: The element of passion dominates the rational. Honors and riches are sought. The military class is dominant.
  3. Oligarchy: Government ruled by the rich; the poor have no access to power. This creates two types of cities: rich and poor.
  4. Democracy: Arises when the poor overcome the rich. Because oligarchs deny real education, the enjoyment of excessive freedom and the rule of corrupt desires create a democratic environment that prepares the way for a more violent regime.
  5. Tyranny: The people accept that a single ruler strips them of freedom, seemingly to establish order, albeit a false one.

Later Philosophical Influences

  • Aristotle: Believed the essences reside in sentient beings, diverging from Plato’s separation of Forms.
  • Neoplatonism: Maintained the division of Being into two areas (the sensible and the suprasensible). Inherited a mystical vision of Platonism, placing God at the highest level, beyond Being.
  • Emanatism: The doctrine that the entire universe emanates from God.
  • Saint Augustine: Considered the creation of the sensible world based on the eternal Ideas existing in the mind of the Creator.
  • Rationalism: Based knowledge on innate ideas rather than on things perceived.
  • Contemporary Philosophy: Plato’s thinking is subject to harsh criticism. One of the most important critics is Nietzsche, who considered that the failure of Platonism arises from prioritizing the pure and good spirit in itself.