Plato suggests that a thing is beautiful if it has the Form of beauty. An orange may have a particular sweet taste – it may be sweeter than another orange but the universal quality is that all oranges have sweet taste. For example, an orange has its individual qualities, the particulars, but oranges have general qualities of colour, taste, smell, and so on. Modern philosophers have interpreted this distinction with their examples of ‘particular’s and ‘universals’.

For Plato these are two different things – essence and manifestations of beauty.

Plato would like to distinguish the ‘essence’ of beauty and the manifestations of beauty. In order to expound on this clearly, Plato makes another distinction, that between Forms and their apparent manifestations. A moral government should be controlled by those with moral knowledge and not with mere moral opinion. Plato opposed the doctrine that everyone should be allowed to express his or her own opinion, to state his beliefs or to influence policies because those who are not trained to function in government do not have enough reason and do not exactly know what is right and what is wrong. To speak of it in our present time, there are only a few people who are given the power of ‘sound judgement about what is right and what is wrong’ and should have the power to make policy. If a citizen does not possess this power or quality, he will not be able to know the goodness of a thing. He does not know if such things are good if he does not know how to distinguish the ‘essence of goodness’ and its corresponding attributes or manifestations. An ordinary citizen can have opinion about good things in life but may not have good moral judgement. According to Plato, this is a requirement in order for a government to be moral. People in government should have moral knowledge and not just moral opinion.

The others who are not dominated by reason should not be allowed to take control of policy. Morality can be guarded and ensured if those given the chance to have power over it are those whose actions are ruled by reason. The guardians are those who have reason or a dominating faculty which allows them to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong. An important theory that comes from Socrates states that control of policy in government should be given in the hands of the ‘guardians’. Plato criticises the free choices or freedoms in democracy and the free choice of occupation. Learn More Plato’s criticism of democracy

Aristotle on democracy