Platos Dialectical Cut in Socrates Soul in The Being of the Beautiful

Plato's Dialectical Cut in Socrates' Soul in The Being of the Beautiful Within the spectrum of the political realm, one of the most important philosophical questions arises, "What is the best regime?" It is obvious that the best regime is one of complied consent. There still seems to be difficulty in deciding the best means to the desired end. Politics, the ruling force, operates in the realm of opinions. Its counterpart, philosophy, is an attempt to replace opinions about political things. This "political science" is the process of acquiring political knowledge for the guiding of political life. The transformation from opinions to knowledge is through the dialectic method. This "political science" is not without its problems. It is plagued by relativism and nihilism. These problems tend to make politics unreceptive to philosophy. What philosophy is is best seen in a confrontation between the philosopher and the city. It is by no small coincidence that these two conflicting views are seen in different characters in The Being of the Beautiful. The obvious question now becomes "Why does Plato make a dialectical cut in Socrates' soul between Theaetetus and Young Socrates?" In answering this question it becomes central to assume that the being of the beautiful is not contained in one character, and for that matter, may not be a character at all. It is crucial then to take up the characteristics of both Theaetetus and Young Socrates in relation to what the beautiful is. In so doing, it will provide the basis for political knowledge. To begin, Theaetetus is a youth just returned from battle. War, being the harshest of all teachers places one under the duress of necessity. This is a fo... ...nd this. He says that "all has been said in a measured way... but this is hard to take in" (Statesman, 293e). The Stranger explains that the rule of law is for one class and is corrupt, imperfect and seditionary. Through the questioning of the laws, the foundations of the one are seen. Politics and philosophy are not natural enemies. Both Theaetetus and Young Socrates understand the ideas to some extent. The goal now is to make each receptive to the other. Both make distinctions between men and gods. They can each understand the concept that something merely "is". Within each character separately a vice is seen but when combined dialectically, the possibility of a true political philosophy is possible. Perhaps Socrates sees in both of them the idea of the philosopher and he wants to see it generated as proof of a permanent condition of human nature.