"Plato on Beauty and the Appearance of Virtue"

Jonathan Fine (University of Hawai'i, Manoa, University of Hawaii)

The October meeting of The New England Symposium on Ancient Philosophy will take place on Thursday, October 28 at 4:30 EDT and will be a discussion of Jonathan Fine's  "Plato on Beauty and the Appearance of Virtue."

Here is Jonathan's description of his paper:  

Why, to become virtuous in Plato's Republic, must one learn to love the kalon (beautiful, admirable, noble) through shame and honour? Plato structures shame and honour by the kalon because virtue is a public affair: pursuing virtue involves desiring to be admired for beautiful deeds. Far from ethically immature, I suggest, this role of the kalon -- beauty -- registers the importance in our shared ethical lives of how we appear before others. 

At the meeting, Jonathan will give a short introduction to his paper and then we will turn to discussion.

The discussion will presuppose that participants have read the paper in advance of the session. The paper and Zoom link will be distributed to participants via email a couple weeks prior to the event.  To allow yourself time to complete the readings, please register at least 48 hours prior to the event.  


You can register for this and other events on our website at https://www.newenglandsymposiumonancientphilosophy.com/.