The following is from Plato’s Symposium and it’s supposed to be (?) responsible for the existence of the “Beauty in the eye of the beholder” phrase:

“Remember how in that communion only, beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities (for he has hold not of an image but of a reality), and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may.”

Can somebody please translate this for me to a 100-IQ language? Doesn’t Plato’s excerpt from Symposium actually state that beauty is universal as opposed to being subjective?

Not sure the translation you have is such a good one ... but as I don’t know ancient Greek I will hesitate to weigh in too harshly. Certainly a capital-G-God is not a concept that Plato had, or at the very least such a concept brings along with it a lot of Christian religious baggage which is entirely foreign to him.

Plato did believe in a “form of the good” which was also the “form of the beautiful” (if I’m remembering my Symposium correctly) ... this was the highest form in a sort of pyramid of forms. He did believe that it was an objective thing, independent of any particular opinions about beauty or goodness. However, he also didn’t identify it with passing fads, opinions, fashions or the like.

Okay, Doug. Thanks.