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Single Idea 2158

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

Full Idea

Pleasure-seekers desperately and violently seek satisfaction in unreal things for a part of themselves which is also unreal - a leaky vessel they're trying to fill.

Gist of Idea

Pleasure-seekers desperately seek illusory satisfaction, like filling a leaky vessel

Source

Plato (The Republic [c.374 BCE], 586b)

Book Ref

Plato: 'Republic', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP 1993], p.335

A Reaction

Plato dreams of some enduring 'satisfaction' which never fades. He should have attended more to Heraclitus, and less to Parmenides.

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]