more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
The usual view of goodness is that it is pleasure, while there's also a more ingenious view that it is knowledge.
Gist of Idea
Pleasure is commonly thought to be the good, though the more ingenious prefer knowledge
Source
Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE], 505b)
Book Ref
Plato: 'Republic', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP 1993], p.230
A Reaction
Pleasure clearly has an attraction for everyone (even puritans), and is thus a plausible natural candidate. Is this pure or instrumental knowledge? Hard to justify the former.
| 3017 | The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance [Socrates, by Diog. Laertius] |
| 301 | Only knowledge of some sort is good [Plato] |
| 2138 | Pleasure is commonly thought to be the good, though the more ingenious prefer knowledge [Plato] |
| 7915 | Supreme cleverness is knowledge of the real value of things [Rochefoucauld] |
| 5931 | All other things being equal, a universe with more understanding is better [Ross] |
| 5939 | Morality is not entirely social; a good moral character should love truth [Ross] |