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Single Idea 132

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

Full Idea

Socrates: I want to ask whether a lifetime spent scratching, itching and scratching, no end of scratching, is also a life of happiness.

Gist of Idea

If happiness is the satisfaction of desires, then a life of scratching itches should be happiness

Source

Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 494c)

Book Ref

Plato: 'Gorgias', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP World's Classics 1994], p.82

A Reaction

There are plenty of people who think 'fun' is the main aim of life, and who fit what Socrates is referring to. We don't admire such a life, but not many people can be admired.

The 14 ideas with the same theme [how can pleasure be harmful?]:

5155 It is hard to fight against emotion, but harder still to fight against pleasure [Heraclitus]
442 Pleasures are like pirates - if you are caught they drown you in a sea of pleasures [Epicharmus]
1664 I would rather go mad than experience pleasure [Antisthenes (I)]
4319 In a fool's mind desire is like a leaky jar, insatiable in its desires, and order and contentment are better [Plato]
132 If happiness is the satisfaction of desires, then a life of scratching itches should be happiness [Plato]
264 The conquest of pleasure is the noblest victory of all [Plato]
2123 Excessive pleasure deranges people, making the other virtues impossible [Plato]
2158 Pleasure-seekers desperately seek illusory satisfaction, like filling a leaky vessel [Plato]
84 The greater the pleasure, the greater the hindrance to thought [Aristotle]
523 It is as brave to master pleasure as to overcome the enemy [Democritus (attr)]
7899 Even divine pleasure will not satisfy the wise, as it is insatiable, and leads to pain [Anon (Dham)]
20852 Rapture is a breakdown of virtue [Stoic school, by Diog. Laertius]
13323 The whole point of pleasure-seeking is novelty, and abandoning established ways [Seneca]
4859 Pleasure is only bad in so far as it hinders a man's capability for action [Spinoza]