Abstract

Throughout The Republic, to a greater or lesser extent in its various books, the idea of Good is as emphatically stated as its definition is avoided. In the face of this desertion so closely followed by many eminent figures, this article aims to show that the idea of Good is developped by Plato in two parallel but not alien ways. It concludes, on the one hand, that the beloved idea is nothing other than a formulation of the logical need of all definitions, i.e., a need interna1 to the Theory of Ideas; on the other hand, it is a gygantic and moving hypostasis of man's capacity and need to know and live with dignity.