ABSTRACT
It is now time to recapitulate the central Platonic position that I wish to discuss. The position goes roughly as follows: all men desire what is best, They show this in desiring what is best for themselves, for if it is really the best for them, then it is because it is best in general. As being an excellent human being is being as it is best for a human being to be, this will involve wanting to be an excellent man. Being able to achieve excellence is only possible if one knows what it is, and this means if one reaches the heights of intellectual development. For to understand is always to understand how it is best that things be done one way rather than any other, so a full understanding of things would be a full understanding of how it is best for things to be. The development of such understanding goes with the growth of a revulsion against disorder and things being done badly, so that the initial desire for what is best takes the form of a desire to have things done properly. Traditional moral norms and standards are seen in this context to be desirable and what any reasonable/knowledgeable man would advocate (at least with some modifications), and the type of motivation underlying it is something that is essential to any fully developed man. What makes the world intelligible and what all men desire, goodness, are thus identical, and it shows traditional morality to be desirable, although something less than its advocates seem to suppose.
