What's the difference between beauty and beauty-in-itself?

In the context... what was meant.. beauty stated just as Beauty, is in what we see and perceive... the "Beauty in itself" is talking about the concept that a thing can exist JUST to BE beautiful, but has NO other purpose.

this goes back to an old argument they had over whether a thing is beautiful because "we" see it that way, or whether something can be beautiful without people bringing their own viewpoints into play. A dog would not be likely to appreciate a solid gold, gem-encrusted statue.. nor, likely, would it find anything interesting about the Mona Lisa.. except, maybe, the smell.

Try reading Meno, also by Plato.

In it he looks at what is "Virtue."

Not A virtue, but that ingredient that all things have that we look at as Virtuous.

beauutty and the beaaast