Plato's Core Concepts: Agathon, Eros, and the Idea of Unity

Three Basic Ideas in Plato:

The Good (Agathon)

The concept of the Good is central to Plato's philosophy. The higher the idea, the better it is. The Good is the ultimate reason for excellence. Plato uses the word Agathon, which doesn't just mean good morals or actions, but also excellence. The highest form of the Good is appropriate or inappropriate. The idea of the Good, when applied to the social world and politics, is identified with the idea of Justice [Justice = OK].

Plato compares the Good with the idea of the Sun. The sun illuminates and gives life to everything. Similarly, the idea of the Good illuminates and gives meaning to all other ideas. The Good provides existence, identity, and perfection to all things knowable. It is the principle of perfection in all things.

The ideas are good, and the Good is an idea like the others, but it is a super-idea because it is the principle and foundation of all others.

Eros (Love)

Below the Good is the idea of Eros (love). Love leads to knowledge of the Good because ideas are good. Love is the force that leads to knowledge and the engine of dialectical ascent. We progress in knowledge because we love ideas.

There are two types of love:

1. Love of bodies: This is not true love because the body belongs to the sensible world, and everything in that world is degraded and less sensitive (Pandemic Aphrodite is its symbol).
2. Supreme love: Love of the soul. It is through the love of souls that we love the ideas. Its symbol is Aphrodite Urania. Sensible things reveal a part of their beauty that causes us to experience Eros, the longing for beauty itself. All things aspire to their archetype or model, which is the pure form, i.e., the ideal representation of themselves.

Idea of Unity

Of Pythagorean origin, unity appears as a fundamental characteristic of the Good. If something is good, it is one. Each idea unifies many things, copies of itself. But the ideas, in turn, are multiple. Therefore, we need the idea of unity to unify the multiplicity of ideas.

Below the idea of unity are the ideas of polarity, in which one implies another. Examples of polar ideas are: Like/unequal, same/different, movement/rest, generation/corruption.

The Good (Agathon): Designates a kind of super-idea, an idea that has primacy over all others and that is the source of the existence of all ideas. The Good is the source of knowledge that all ideas are tending towards. It is a synonym for God, the God who makes all things exist and illuminates the soul in the knowledge that is the truth.