THE GREEK HERITAGE
NEOPLATONIC GOOD
God creates. This does not only means that He brings about beings, but it also means that He cares for, and thus governs, the activity of the universe and of every creature. This central belief of the Christian faith, while inspired by divine revelation, has been shaped and defined by an idea stated in the work of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, which had been put forward a thousand years before Aquinas. He is credited for giving the subsequent history of philosophy in one of its most compelling and enduring ideas: the notion of a supreme and absolutely transcendent good.
In his work The Republic, it is often supposed that Plato is trying to envision the ideal society. But that plan is only a part of a more fundamental concern that animates the text, which is to provide an objective basis and standard for the striving to be moral. In other words, it can be said that Plato was trying to answer questions such as, "Why should I bother trying to be good?" and "Why cannot 'good' be just whatever I say it is?" His answer, placed in the mouth of the main