Plato’s Symposium
Commentary by Philip Tomlinson

        An interesting quandary is raised by the uneven weight of
importance given to our sensory perceptions. People are more
inclined to seek aesthetic beauty since sight is generally the most
relied upon perception. It is stated in the Symposium that “the
most important kind of wisdom . . . goes by the names of
justice and moderation.” The lack of sense organ to perceive
justice well means that it is not likely to be encountered or
pursued often, as human’s are simply not properly equipped to
sense the concept. This situation suggests that aesthetics plays
a significantly more important role as opposed to virtue in the
progression of society. A resulting danger is that perhaps people
merely try to create a world that appears just as opposed to
one that actually embodies the form of justice. This rationale
helps explain why people deceive themselves into thinking they
live in a moral climate simply because they themselves are not
suffering great injustices, while other people most certainly are.