Explain the desire of the soul for being according to Plato, and why, for Plato, the Good = the Beautiful = the True.

Plato's
understanding of the soul's desire for being is well articulated in his belief in reincarnation.
Plato believed that after the death of the body the soul persisted and maintained its ability to
think. These souls are continually reborn in subsequent bodies.

Plato equates
goodness, beauty and truth through his theory of forms. To Plato, the world we perceive is not
the real world, rather the real world is made of philosophical truths that he called ideals.
These ideals are the only true things and, as illustrated in theof the cave, the world as we
experience is made of imperfect shadows of these ideals. These ideals are considered good when
they are knowable, and they are considered beautiful because they represent the most perfect
version of the thing they represent.