‘The Form of the Good’ and ‘the Unhypothesized Principle’ in Plato’s Republic, VI-VII

Abstract

In this paper, I provide an interpretation of ‘the Form of the Good’ and ‘the unhypothesized principle’ in Plato’s Republic, VI-VII.

Regarding the ‘Form of the Good,’ I first consider what is meant by the fact that Plato speaks of ‘the Good,’ on the one hand, usually as one Form among others and, on the other hand, at Republic, 509b7-9 as a special ‘Form’ that transcends the other Forms. I argue that these two ways of speaking of the Good should not represent two different items (pace Fujisawa) but rather two aspects of the same item.

The Form of the Good is the cause of good things being good, just as the Form X is the cause of x things being x. And, for Plato, for something to be good is for its components to be unified. Now, the totality of Forms is something good, and this is made good by the Good, which unifies the system of Forms (this unification is what the Good does as the special, transcending ‘Form’).

‘The unhypothesized principle’, which the dialectician grasps at the end of ‘the upward path’, is, in my view, the system of Forms (and not, as many suppose, the Good itself). In the upward path, the dialectician subsumes a given Form under a more general Form and then subsumes this under an even more general Form, so that the whole system of Forms is both the endpoint of this procedure and the starting point (archē) for the downward path. This system is an especially good thing, showing, I suggest, the highest unity; grasping this system helps one to understand how unification in general comes about, which understanding, in turn, promotes the understanding of the Good.