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From, A History of Greek Philosophy, vol. I, The early Presocratics and the Pythagoreans, Cambridge University Press, 1962, pp. 1-25.
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Page 14
Determined to defend and expand his master's teaching, Plato with his more universal genius, though he had no names for the branches of more recent philosophy just mentioned, wove something of all of them into the superb tapestry of his dialogues. Goodness had a real nature because it stood at the head of the world of 'forms'. These were ideal entities having a substantial existence beyond space and time, and constituting the perfect patterns after which were modelled the fleeting and imperfect representations of truth in ethical, mathematical and other spheres which are all that we encounter in this world. Knowledge is possible because, as Pythagorean and other religious teachers claimed, the human soul (of which for Plato the intellect was the highest and best part) is immortal and enters again and again into mortal bodies. Between its incarnations it is face to face with the eternal realities. Contamination with the corporeal dulls the memory of these, which may be reawakened by experience of their imperfect and mutable representations on earth, and, thus started on its way, the philosophic soul may, even in this life, recapture much of the truth by a process of rigorous intellectual and moral self-discipline. Philosophy is a canalization of the will and emotions as well as of the intellect. The soul has three parts, a concupiscent, a spirited or impulsive, and a rational. The eros, or libido, of each is directed towards a different class of object (physical pleasure, honourable ambition, wisdom). In the soul of the true philosopher the lower two are not allowed to exceed the bounds of their proper functions; the amount of eros directed towards their objects is diminished, and it flows with a corresponding increase in strength towards the objectives of reason, which are knowledge and goodness. In this way the Socratic paradoxes receive a broader psychological base.
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Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-Greece/guthrie-history-intro.asp?pg=14
