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1. The Theory of Forms is the most important philosophical aspect of Plato’s thoughts in
general. It was inspired by the unchanging perfect clarity of mathematics. Plato doubts
that nothing of this world is perfect or permanent. Everything of justice and beauty is
flawed in some way, but we still have a sense of what true justice and true beauty is.
Plato’s theory explains that there is a world that contains the Form of Justice, the Form of
Beauty, and other forms that show of the perfect expression of these ideas. Any beauty or
justice we see has beauty or justice only to the part it takes in these Forms. The beauty
and justice we find in this world gives us some knowledge of the more real world of
Forms.
2. When Meno says that virtue is the desire for good things, Socrates argues that this can’t
be the case. Different people are not alike in virtue, so virtue must be something that
varies among them. Desire is believed to be good and perfectly universal since no person
has ever knowingly desired what is bad. Differences in a person’s conduct have to be a
consequence of things they know.
3. a. [Socrates] And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or
unenlightened: --Behold! human beings living in a underground cave, which has a mouth
open towards the light and reaching all along the cave; here they have been from their
childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only
see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above
