柏拉圖

一般了解柏拉圖，只知其理型論。但却忽略了柏拉圖的哲學實在不只有理型論，而有更豐富的內涵。例如其倫理的論述、對知性生活的論述……可能比其理型論更為精彩細緻。
這方面大可參閱柏拉圖《理想國》（尤其二、三、六章），加上Phaedrus、Gorgias、Philebus中對理想生活的論述……實在可能比其理型論更引人入勝呢
John McDowell 在“Mind, value and Reality”, eassy 3 “virtue and reason”中認為柏拉圖的理型論是對倫理生活原本無法「被編碼」(uncodifiable) 此問題的回應。McDowell 引Iris Murdoch的“The Sovereignty of Good”，說她認為對理型的了解可使人培養謙虛和宗教感。
“The remoteness of the Form of the Good is a metaphorical version of the thesis that value is not in the world……The point of the metaphor is the colossal difficulty of attaining a capacity to cope clear-sightedly with the ethical reality that is part of our world. Unlike other philosophical responses to uncodifiability, this one may actually work towards moral improvement; negatively, by inducing humility, and positively, by an inspiring effect akin to that of a religious conversion”