The Phaedrus which can be commonly translated into English as a discourse "On the Beautiful" is, in fact, the most critical book after the REPUBLIC. In it rather than reading as a separate work from the Republic, serves as a foundation to understand the descendant from heaven to earth. Like the Republic, there is a higher good in the forms and then a lower vision of men. While devoid of the matter of agape in such a case, a similar understanding of objective love appears here as a contrast to eros, the erotic love of the youth. In this, the theory of the forms also creates the roots for metaphysics with the encounter of the argument of the deathless soul. It is then that Plato introduces the concept of the highest truth which is objective and meta-physical.
My thoughts on the Phaedrus:
This beautiful thing is something out of this universe. I do not mean this metaphorically but rather literally. Both Sophia and God habit outside our temporal space. They cannot be measured with a ruler, nor with all the sciences of the world. The ultimate happiness is achieved only after we depart this world. For as long as a man still is moved toward a higher good, it means we have not achieved it. For we do not desire to eat a pizza after we have a slice in our mouth. Our mouth only desires the taste prior we have it. The same is about the ultimate truth. Men are driven toward the image of love in this world, but this is nothing, but a simple contemplation of what love can be in the next like (cf. Plato, Phaedrus, 255e 1). Ultimate the beautiful is the eternal relationship with the highest end. We shall be like angels in heaven, united in God and with all the wine necessary to maintain a non-ending symposium.
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