Abstract
The second, enlarged edition of Plato’s “Idee des Guten” (1984) gives a new and "anti-esoteric" reconstruction of an “exasperatingly difficult but ever fascinating topic” (H. Cherniss), i.e., of the Platonic theory of the ideal numbers and the two principles which were contained in the “so called unwritten doctrines” (Aristotle). It suggests i.a. that the “Divided Line” is a symbolic allusion to the second principle of the “Indefinite Dyad” or 'the Great and the Small'. In the outlook it gives also new information on the reception of Plato’s Idea of the Good in P. Natorp and M. Heidegger. It also includes an updated bibliography.
“Ferbers gedankenreiche Monographie läßt sich mit Gewinn studieren.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
“…le meilleur ouvrage des dernières décennies sur l’Idée du Bien chez Platon“ (Yvon Lafrance, Deux lectures de l’Idée du Bien chez Platon : République 502c-509c, Laval théologique et philosophique, 62, 2006, p. 247.)
Ferber, Rafael