Postscript

Summary

Truth, I have argued, is not a matter of reference but of addition. In his early dialogue, Laches, Plato reports Socrates as saying: ‘For if we know that the truth of something would improve some other thing, and are able to make that addition, then, clearly, we must know how that about which we are advising may be best and most easily attained.’¹ The improvement in this case is virtue. For Plato, this is a matter of pursuing the Good which can only be known through contemplation of truth. Eternal truth radiates forth to one as Beauty which incites one’s desire to pursue the Good as one’s true end.