The Sense of Beauty

Lecture Five: The Sense of Beauty

Usually translated as the “admirable,” “noble,” or “fine,” to kalon in Plato is generally parsed as “Beauty in itself” and counterposed to what is poikilon, the “ornamentation,” “embroidery,” “variety,” or “diversity” perceived by the senses. In Hippias Major and other dialogs, by contrast, including in the context of the democratic souls and constitution under scrutiny in Republic, kalon appears to be embedded with poikilia. This lecture argues for a phenomenological understanding of beauty in Plato and explores the implications of this understanding for the dialogs’ political philosophy.