Single Idea 4319

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 3. Pleasure / f. Dangers of pleasure]

Full Idea

In a fool's mind desire is a leaky jar, …which is an analogy for the mind's insatiability, showing we should prefer an orderly life, in which one is content with whatever is to hand, to a self-indulgent life of insatiable desire.

Gist of Idea

In a fool's mind desire is like a leaky jar, insatiable in its desires, and order and contentment are better

Source

Plato (Gorgias [c.378 BCE], 493b)

Book Reference

Plato: 'Gorgias', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP World's Classics 1994], p.80


A Reaction

This points to an interesting paradox, that pleasure requires the misery of desire. And yet absence of desire is like death. An Aristotelian mean, of living according to nature, seems the escape route.