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Bailey Dean

PHH 2101

Profesor Monroe

21, April 2019

Religion, Plato, and The Good

In book six of the Republic, a dialogue is set up between Socrates and Glaucon, on what

the highest good is. One of the conclusions that they come to, is whatever allows a person to

learn or get closer to something that allows them to learn is good. The Sun is used to illustrate

the highest good because it is what allows us to gain knowledge. This is the philosophical

viewpoint on good, but what about the religious viewpoint? Over thousands of years hundreds

and thousands of religions have appeared, some still thriving today. Each one of these religions

has ethics, laws, and rituals all the followers practice. Each of these religions discusses what is

good and what is bad. Each of these religions touches on the metaphysical and physical aspects

of knowledge and understanding. Similar to the divided line there are different levels for

different circumstances of this knowledge. Some religions have a strong emphasis on having a

relationship with a godlike being. Others focus on the community and being with other people.

Lastly, some focus on detaching ourselves from the physical world and focus only on the

metaphysical. In this paper, it will be discussed what each major religion sees as their Good, how

this compares or contrasts with Plato, how both viewpoints can work together, and discussing the

topic of God in relation to The Good.

Starting with the different religions, Christianity says that there are two things that can be

considered The Good. The first is loving God and the second is loving others. In this situation,

they are two separate actions that are part of one commandment. In scripture one is not given
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priority over another, yet one can assume that out of the two, loving God will always be the

highest priority. But even with this distinction even if we assume that God is the highest priority

then we not only lose the second have of the commandment, but also the communal aspect of the

entire religion. For Christianity, we will be using the commandment of loving God and others as

The Good. In Judaism, one of the core aspects is to follow the laws. It is important to be obedient

and be very pious. Everyone must follow God and follow all the laws God has given. There is

the communal aspect in Judaism, yet not as strong and upfront as Christianity. For Judaism, we

will consider being pious as The Good. In Islam, the one aspect they hold dear is following The

Five Pillars of Faith. The Five Pillars are, announcing their faith, worshiping Allah, fasting

during Ramadan, giving alms, and pilgrimage to Mecca. These are the important aspect and seen

as the Highest Good for Islam. Buddhism states that the ultimate goal of one’s life is to achieve

Nirvana and escape the cycle of reincarnation called Samsara. By separating ourselves from

attachment in the material world and gaining Karma, and achieving Nirvana is seen as the

ultimate goal and The Good for Buddhism. The goal of Hinduism is similar to that of Buddhism.

Live a good life and gain good Karma, move up the Caste, and eventually escape reincarnation

and become one with Brahman. Becoming one with the universe is seen as the highest Good in

Hinduism. With these points established as what each religion has as their Greatest Good, we can

now begin to compare them to Plato’s definition of The Good.

Plato defines The Good as something that allows us to gain knowledge. This goes back to

the analogy of the Sun, where the sun gives us sight, which allows us to gain more knowledge,

making it The Greatest Good. Christianity's Greatest Good is to love God and to love others. By

following Christian doctrine, wisdom can be gained by building relationships with others and

learning what they know. With a relationship with God, knowledge can be gained, but it can be
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very vague and confusing since having a relationship with a being that cannot be physically

connected with. Christianity’s Good is similar to Plato’s because someone can gain knowledge

from the relationships they make with other people and learning what they know. These

relationships can act almost like the Socratic Dialectic by conversing with someone and

questioning what they know. Judaism’s Greatest Good, is kept by being pious and following the

law. Being pious gives us a similar problem with Christianity because someone does not directly

engage in dialogue with God, it is near impossible to achieve knowledge or wisdom that we

know of. Following the law can make someone a good person depending on ethical views, an

individual can question the laws, but no knowledge can be gained from it. The Good in Judaism

is not similar to Plato’s Good, because there is no way to obtain knowledge from it. Islam’s

Good is similar to that as Judaism. By being pious and interacting with Allah, one can gain

knowledge, but again involves interaction with a nonphysical being and following religious laws.

Islam’s Good is not similar to Plato’s Good because there is no way to obtain knowledge.

Buddhism wants for someone to separate themselves from the world and build good Karma by

performing good deeds. By meditating and practicing the teachings of the Buddha, knowledge

can be gained by reflecting on the world in order to gain a greater understanding of life.

Buddhism’s Good is similar to Plato’s because the reflection on life a monk has and the dialect

they engage in with the other monks allows them to gain knowledge and a greater understanding

of the world. Hinduism’s Good is the escape of reincarnation through gaining Karma. Gaining

knowledge is an important part of Hindu culture is gaining knowledge. At the end of a Hindu

follower’s life, they go into the mountains and learn everything they can. They are taught by a

Guru and are taught all they can. By following the traditions and gaining Karma which is

considered The Good in Hinduism, they are close to what allows them to gain knowledge just
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like Plato wants people to. These Goods that each religion describes when compared to how they

are connected to Plato’s definition of The Good vary. Some religions are very good when it

comes to being similar to how Plato wants people to see The Good, while others are in no way

related. Yet, among the ones that fit Plato’s definition, they all have the same thing in common.

They involve interacting and engaging in dialogue with other people and learning from their

knowledge.

All these examples fit in with how Plato wants people to gain knowledge, through

dialectic. By engaging with other people we are able to expand our horizons and gain an insight

into other people’s worldviews. There seems to be a theme among all these religions and Plato’s

thoughts where the community is how people gain the most knowledge. People can be seen as

resources, where everyone has their own experience that by engaging in the dialectic we learn

from them and them from us. Working in a community of people who share similar values and

the want for knowledge can engage with each other and learn. By fitting these different

worldviews and their view on The Good with Plato they fit together into this overall theme of

learning and community. Similar to knowledge, pleasure also comes from The Good. People

want to be with other people. As a species, we are designed for a community for the aspects of

survival and learning. By being together humans have evolved over the thousands of years to

where we are today. Psychological damage can be caused to a person who is isolated from

society and their viewpoint on the world is very different in what they think is and isn’t true.

This ties to the allegory of the cave where without community we are trapped in our own

ignorance and by being with people we can see what truth is by learning together and engaging

in dialectic. The similarities in the different worldviews and the philosophy all point to the

community being something that can be considered The Good like the Sun can be. With the sun
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we can see and thus we can learn, without it, we cannot see and thus we cannot learn. Engaging

with people allows us to learn what they learn and we have the connection we innately need.

Without people, we cannot learn anything past our own ignorance and we are deprived of the

connection we need causing us to be lost forever in our ignorance.

In the three Abrahamic religions, there is also the interaction with God. Attempting to

interact with a being outside of our understanding and have community with it as we do as

people, is an interesting concept. The thought that there is a supreme being that has set the

universe into motion and knows everything that has, can, is, and will be. A being like this should

be considered The Good, by Plato and these religions, being the ultimate source of knowledge

and wisdom. We would want to be as close to the entity as we possibly could and learn from it.

The problem arises where we cannot have an understanding of this. In order to interact with God

and gain all his knowledge and wisdom would require us to have enough knowledge to conceive

of it and be able to interact. Yet, either we have not learned everything we can from this

community process of learning to be on the same level of understanding as God, it is impossible

for us to have this kind of understanding, or there is no God. In the understanding of Plato’s

discussion for The Good, it makes sense for us not to have the understanding yet, meaning there

is still more to learn from each other. In the argument for this, Plato is saying that we should be

close to what allows us to learn, making that The Good, and if community is The Good and

being close to it allows us to grow in knowledge to eventually connect with a godlike being, then

this can confirm community being The Ultimate Good, because it is what allowed us to gain

knowledge, and when we could no longer gain any more knowledge, we were able to get close to

this being of infinite knowledge and wisdom. Even if there is no God, what other Good could

there be besides the community we have. Even if there is no God to get close to, or if we cannot
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because we lack the possibility to comprehend the existence of such an entity, there is nothing

else that we can engage in a dialectic with and expand our knowledge in the way that community

can.

In conclusion, by going over all these major religions, we see a common theme of

community and learning. We see commandments telling us to be good to others and have

community with them. We see the teachings of the founders, telling us to learn what we can and

disconnect ourselves from the world. By putting these two ways of teaching together, we get the

idea of being in community with others and learning. Engaging in the dialectic with other people

to learn from them everything they have learned through their lives. Community is something as

a species we need in order to survive without going absolutely mad. By treating community as

The Good, and making way for the argument for God, we can say the Community is truly The

Good, by allowing us not only to learn all we can but also allows us to get close to that which has

infinite knowledge. With this, we can conclude that the religious aspects of teaching, learning,

and community not only fit the criteria for Plato to deem them Good but in a way community fits

the criteria to deem it The Good similarly to the Sun.