ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that we can better understand Hegel's conception of philosophy by attending to a project in Plato's middle dialogues that demands that philosophy be a science of the Good. The chapter begins with an overview of Plato's central and unifying project in his middle dialogues. It begins to be formulated in the Meno, is developed in the Phaedo and the Republic (among other dialogues), and is then assessed in the Parmenides. Focusing on the Platonic strain in Hegel will enable us to better understand the ever-present aspect of the divine in his argument (as more than metaphor or rhetorical flourish) and with this, his conception of philosophy as speculative (in form and content) and as system. The Republic draws together the metaphysical and epistemological sides of the Platonic second-best method. The image of the sun treats the Good as first principle.
