Download Socrates & Beauty

By Kelly and Amy
The view of beauty
 The earliest Western theory of beauty can be found in the works
of early Greek philosophers from the pre-Socratic period, they
have a strong connection between mathematics and beauty.
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. He is as one
of the founders of Western philosophy and an enigmatic(难以理
解的,神秘的) figure known chiefly through the accounts of later
classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato, and
the plays of his contemporary Aristophanes.
 These definitions come
from Hippias Major (is one
of the dialogues of Plato)
 In the Hippias Major,
Socrates and Hippias set out
to find a definition for
"beauty"
Socrates’s four definition
beauty is that which is appropriate
hypothesis
Does the
appropriateness
Make things
beautiful?
Or
Does it simply
make them
Appear to be
beautiful?
The second hypothesis is
tempting:
even a ridiculous man, dressed
in nice
clothing, will appear more
beautiful.
But inside he would still be
ridiculous; thus appropriate
and
beautiful are not the same.
 Second definition:
beauty is that which is
useful
 But here again problems
surface: it is through
power that men make
things useful.
Nevertheless, as is well
known, power can as
much serve evil as it
serves good.
 Third definition:
beauty is that which is
favorable
 Identifying the beautiful
and the favorable leads
to a paradox: the
favorable procreates the
beautiful, as a father
procreates a son.
 Fourth definition:
beauty is the pleasure
that comes from
seeing and hearing
 This hypothesis, while
appealing, contains
according to Socrates
himself a fundamental
flaw; that it ignores the
beauty of the more noble
pleasures, drawn from
the studious occupations
or the study of laws.
 Direct experience, Socrates claims, is unreliable. It
reveals a complex of contradicting qualities that
cohabit in the same object: any beautiful object is at
the same time not beautiful when compared with a
higher beauty.
 Appearance can be misleading. A person may appear
beautiful when wearing suitable clothes, although he
is not truly beautiful. Socrates in fact dismisses all
expressions of physical beauty as untrustworthy. The
ultimate beauty that contains no contradicting
elements is beyond earthly experience.
 Plato portrays such absolute beauty in the Phaedo,
where Socrates sees its heavenly form. Socrates rejects
further the idea that beauty is that which functions
properly: an object may function well, but if its
purpose is evil, the object is not beautiful.
 He also disagrees that beauty should be defined as a
cause of delight. The good, Socrates argues, also causes
delight, and the two should be kept distinct.
 By means of beauty all beautiful things become
beautiful .For this appears to me the safest answer
to give both to myself and others; and adhering to
this, I think that I shall never fall, but that it is a
safe answer both for me and any one else to give —
that by means of beauty beautiful things become
beautiful.
 Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.
 Beauty is the bait which with delight allures man
to enlarge his kind.
 Give me beauty in the inward soul; may the
outward and the inward man be at one.
 SOCRATES: Is all that is beautiful good, or is all





that is good beautiful?
ATREUS: All that is beautiful is good.
SOCRATES: Yes, but what about the second part
of the question, Atreus? Is all that is good
beautiful?
ATREUS: No, Socrates. All that is good is not
beautiful. For example, we might say that
Pythagoras is good at math, but it would be
inaccurate to say that Pythagoras is beautiful at
math. So good and beauty are not
interchangeable terms.
SOCRATES: Very good Atreus. So we shall say
that beauty must be good in order to be
rightfully considered beauty. But let me ask you
this Atreus. Do you consider plays to be
beautiful?
ATREUS: Of course Socrates, there is great
beauty in plays. A play is a work of art. A play is a
beautiful thing, it expresses raw human
emotion, it teaches, it entertains, etc.
Socratic
dialogue
investigating
the meaning
of beauty
The explanation
 What I have intended to show here is an example of a
Socratic dialogue. Like most other dialogues, Socrates,
or one of his friends is confronted with a dilemma of a
philosophical nature. At the heart of this dilemma is
the true meaning of the term "beauty."
 In this dialogue, Socrates claims to have no clear
notion about what beauty is, yet his interlocutor,
Atreus is considered somewhat of an expert in this
area. Atreus, feeling confident he knows what beauty
is, gives in to Socrates' plea to define the term. In
Atreus' attempt to define beauty, Socrates finds
problems with each definition.