Note 196 — Chapter XXXVII · REPUBLIC — REMARKS ON THE PLATONIC COMMONWEALTH. (continued 2)
Reading edition
Certainly when we see the way in which Plato deals with the ἰδέα ἀγαθοῦ, we cannot exempt him from the criticism which he addresses to others, vi. p. 493 E. ὡς δὲ καὶ ἀγαθὰ καὶ καλὰ ταῦτα τῇ ἀληθείᾳ, ἤδη πωποτέ τοῦ ἤκουσας αὐτῶν λόγον διδόντος οὐ καταγέλαστον;
We may illustrate this procedure of Plato by an Oriental fable, cited in an instructive Dissertation of M. Ernest Renan.
“Aristoteles primum sub Almamuno (813-833, A.D.) arabicè factus est. Somniumque effictum à credulis hominibus: vidisse Almamunum in somno virum aspectu venerabili, solio insidentem: mirantem Almamunum quæsivisse, quisnam ille esset? responsum, Aristotelem esse. Quo audito, Chalifam ab eo quæsivisse, Quidnam Bonum esset? respondisse Aristotelem: Quod sapientiores probarent. Quærenti Chalifæ quid hoc esset? Quod lex divina probat — dixisse. Interroganti porro illi, Quid hoc? Quod omnes probarent — respondisse: neque alii ultra quæstioni respondere voluisse. Quo somnio permotum Almamunum à Græcorum imperatore veniam petiisse, ut libri philosophici in ipsius regno quærerentur: hujusque rei gratiâ viros doctos misisse.” Ernest Renan, De Philosophiâ Peripateticâ apud Syros, commentatio Historica, p. 57; Paris, 1852.
Among the various remarks which might be made upon this curious dream, one is, that Bonum is always determined as having relation to the appreciative apprehension of some mind — the Wise Men, the Divine Mind, the Mind of the general public. Bonum is that which some mind or minds conceive and appreciate as such. The word has no meaning except in relation to some apprehending Subject.