In the undergraduate thesis, I aim to present and analyse Plato’s definition of virtue, as he presents it in his dialogues The Republic, Phaedo, Gorgias, Meno, and Protagoras. First, I posit a fundamental unity of all parts of virtue. Here, the most important ones are courage, wisdom, temperance and justice, which are ultimately one, since they have the same origin. I suggest that Plato presents three basic definitions of virtue. The first definition is based on the concept of the polis and the three classes which emerge within it. The second springs from the division of the soul into three parts. For both definitions, the harmonious relation between the parts or classes, and the rule of wisdom over the other parts/classes, is key. The third and most important definition takes as its basis the philosopher’s ability to perceive the Form of the Good, which gives him the knowledge of what virtue is and how to act virtuously. All three definitions are interconnected, intertwined and complement each other. The virtue that arises in the soul and the polis helps the philosopher in his ascend to the apprehension of the Form of the Good, while the apprehension of the Form of the Good in turn makes the emergence of virtue in the soul and the polis possible.
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