Morality

[Acrobat]

A few things here,

Good is an external reality, that tells us that we ought to be Good, endows moral obligations and duties upon us, served as its own moral authority. Sounds very much like a God to me, but not to you?

In fact in Plato’s conception the Good is the author of everything beautiful and right.

Okay. Plato is talking about the sun in the line you quoted, not God. (Though the sun is a metaphor for the form of the Good). The Jowett translation (though poetic in places) has some confusing language in it.

I wasn’t quoting the metaphorical portion of the allegory here, but the closing portion, where Pluto explains the meaning of his allegory:

“ in the world of knowledge the idea of Good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must have his eye fixed.”

While Plato doesn’t refer to the Good as God, his description of it, posses a variety of God like qualities, like the author of all things beautiful and right, etc..

PS: Are you avoiding the Euthyphro argument?

I felt I’ve addressed it a few times when others appealed to some version of it.

But I’ll say it again. The answer to his dilemma is neither.

The good isn’t something that God commands, god is the Good. It is this Goodness that’s commands us in and of itself.