“Wealth does not bring about excellence, but excellence makes wealth and everything else good for men, both individually and collectively.” This was said by Socrates, the father of Western philosophy, in his defense before the Athenian jury before being sentenced to death 2,423 years ago.
The longer I reflect on that line, the more it opens up. Here are a few ways we could understand Socrates’s point.
One could use it appropriately to tout traditional values, hard work and academic achievement. Just as easily, one might deploy it in a capitalist economic sense: a rising tide (excellence) lifts all boats (making wealth individually and collectively). It could also be interpreted as a warning against greed and materialism: When we seek wealth without excellence, we’re going about it backward. Instead, rationally pursuing excellence in all our activities will naturally bring temporal benefits like wealth.
While I think those are all valid understandings, there’s a more exciting and unifying idea at the core of what Socrates says: Higher goods yield lower goods. Good things come from and are dependent upon that which is best.
To make this more concrete, look around and notice the goods around you. Did they come from less good things or higher ones? “Well,” one might say, “this plate came from raw/crude materials. I wouldn’t consider those greater goods. If anything, it came from lower goods.” But by coming from, I don’t mean made up of. For something as dull as a plate to be what it is, it depends on some organizing intellect, superior skill, or sophisticated process–something above it in intelligence.
And not just for plates. No quality can exist in isolation. A thing gets its quality and being from its relationship to a superior thing. From this idea, one may extrapolate profitably.