ABSTRACT
Plato states more than once that the aim of the man of knowledge is to ascend to a final, transcendental principle. He may talk about an ascent from hypothesis to hypothesis to reach something which is ‘sufficient’ ( Phaedo 99d-107b), or about an ascending recognition of the Beautiful from observing beautiful bodies, past the recognition of the morally beautiful up to the contemplation of the Beautiful itself (Symposium 210aff.), or about the gradation of the modes of perception, the highest of which, , recognises the principle of all things (Republic 509d-511e).57 At any rate the meaning of these passages has not been misunderstood by previous generations, who regarded the desire for ‘ascent’ and ‘climbing over’ as the essence of Platonism.
