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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: unlike of unlike; and therefore good is not the friend of good, nor evil of
evil, nor good of evil, nor evil of good. What remains but that the
indifferent, which is neither good nor evil, should be the friend (not of
the indifferent, for that would be 'like the friend of like,' but) of the
good, or rather of the beautiful?
But why should the indifferent have this attachment to the beautiful or
good? There are circumstances under which such an attachment would be
natural. Suppose the indifferent, say the human body, to be desirous of
getting rid of some evil, such as disease, which is not essential but only
accidental to it (for if the evil were essential the body would cease to be
indifferent, and would become evil)--in such a case the indifferent becomes
Lysis |
