Abstract

In an interesting passage in the Philebus , Plato associates pure beauty with geometrical forms created by certain measuring tools used both by mathematicians and carpenters. The ‘beauty of figures’ is analysed as' something straight [εθ τι]… and round [περιφερς] and the two- and three-dimensional figures generated from these by [τρνοι] and ruler [κανσ7iota;] and set-squares [γωναι]' He continues: ‘For I maintain that these things are not beautiful in relation to something, as other things are, but they are always beautiful by nature, by themselves…’