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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.371 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
92 ideas
from 'The Republic'
5094
|
Plato's Forms are said to have no location in space
[Plato, by Aristotle]
|
6562
|
Plato's reality has unchanging Parmenidean forms, and Heraclitean flux
[Plato, by Fogelin]
|
5945
|
The 'Republic' is a great work of rhetorical theory
[Lawson-Tancred on Plato]
|
12043
|
Forms are not universals, as they don't cover every general term
[Plato, by Annas]
|
12122
|
Plato mistakenly thought forms were totally abstracted away from matter
[Bacon on Plato]
|
5574
|
Plato's Forms not only do not come from the senses, but they are beyond possibility of sensing
[Plato, by Kant]
|
1869
|
The good cannot be expressed in words, but imprints itself upon the soul
[Plato, by Celsus]
|
4115
|
Plato found that he could only enforce rational moral justification by creating an authoritarian society
[Williams,B on Plato]
|
2630
|
If Plato's God is immaterial, he will lack consciousness, wisdom, pleasure and movement, which are essential to him
[Cicero on Plato]
|
7
|
Surely you don't return a borrowed weapon to a mad friend?
[Plato]
|
2092
|
Simonides said morality is helping one's friends and harming one's enemies
[Plato]
|
5
|
Justice is merely the interests of the stronger party
[Plato]
|
8
|
Is right just the interests of the powerful?
[Plato]
|
6009
|
Psychic conflict is clear if appetite is close to the body and reason fairly separate
[Plato, by Modrak]
|
2093
|
You must never go against what you actually believe
[Plato]
|
2094
|
A thing's function is what it alone can do, or what it does better than other things
[Plato]
|
2095
|
If something has a function then it has a state of being good
[Plato]
|
2096
|
Is the function of the mind management, authority and planning - or is it one's whole way of life?
[Plato]
|
19946
|
Morality is a compromise, showing restraint, to avoid suffering wrong without compensation
[Plato]
|
10
|
After a taste of mutual harm, men make a legal contract to avoid it
[Plato]
|
12
|
If we were invisible, would the just man become like the unjust?
[Plato]
|
13
|
Is the supreme reward for virtue to be drunk for eternity?
[Plato]
|
2097
|
Isn't it better to have a reputation for goodness than to actually be good?
[Plato]
|
14
|
If the gods are non-existent or indifferent, why bother to deceive them?
[Plato]
|
15
|
Sin first, then sacrifice to the gods from the proceeds
[Plato]
|
16
|
We avoid evil either through a natural aversion, or because we have acquired knowledge
[Plato]
|
19889
|
People need society because the individual has too many needs
[Plato]
|
19890
|
All exchanges in a community are for mutual benefit
[Plato]
|
2120
|
God is responsible for the good things, but we must look elsewhere for the cause of the bad things
[Plato]
|
2061
|
The best things (gods, healthy bodies, good souls) are least liable to change
[Plato]
|
23767
|
The winds of the discussion should decide its destination
[Plato]
|
2123
|
Excessive pleasure deranges people, making the other virtues impossible
[Plato]
|
2126
|
A good community necessarily has wisdom, courage, self-discipline and morality
[Plato]
|
23561
|
People doing their jobs properly is the fourth cardinal virtue for a city
[Plato]
|
2127
|
The mind has parts, because we have inner conflicts
[Plato]
|
1737
|
The soul seems to have an infinity of parts
[Aristotle on Plato]
|
6041
|
There is a third element to the mind - spirit - lying between reason and appetite
[Plato]
|
23562
|
If the parts of our soul do their correct work, we will be just people, and will act justly
[Plato]
|
2129
|
Goodness is mental health, badness is mental sickness
[Plato]
|
2130
|
People often merely practice eristic instead of dialectic, because they don't analyse the subject-matter
[Plato]
|
2131
|
Is there anything better for a community than to produce excellent people?
[Plato]
|
2132
|
Only rule by philosophers of integrity can keep a community healthy
[Plato]
|
24228
|
Believers in the beautiful see that it is separate from things that participate in it
[Plato]
|
2133
|
Knowledge must be of the permanent unchanging nature of things
[Plato]
|
2134
|
Philosophers are concerned with totally non-physical pleasures
[Plato]
|
2135
|
Truth is closely related to proportion
[Plato]
|
24229
|
The true reality is organised and harmonised in a rational order
[Plato]
|
2136
|
Philosophers become as divine and orderly as possible, by studying divinity and order
[Plato]
|
23682
|
It would be absurd to be precise about the small things, but only vague about the big things
[Plato]
|
2137
|
The main aim is to understand goodness, which gives everything its value and advantage
[Plato]
|
2138
|
Pleasure is commonly thought to be the good, though the more ingenious prefer knowledge
[Plato]
|
2070
|
Even people who think pleasure is the good admit that there are bad pleasures
[Plato]
|
4007
|
For Plato we abandon honour and pleasure once we see the Good
[Plato, by Taylor,C]
|
2139
|
Every person, and every activity, aims at the good
[Plato]
|
2140
|
True belief without knowledge is like blind people on the right road
[Plato]
|
2141
|
I suggest that we forget about trying to define goodness itself for the time being
[Plato]
|
2142
|
The plurality of beautiful things must belong to a single class, because they have a single particular character
[Plato]
|
2143
|
Good has the same role in the world of knowledge as the sun has in the physical world
[Plato]
|
2144
|
Goodness makes truth and knowledge possible
[Plato]
|
21818
|
Being depends on the Good, which is not itself being, but superior to being
[Plato]
|
2145
|
In mathematics certain things have to be accepted without further explanation
[Plato]
|
2147
|
The sight of goodness leads to all that is fine and true and right
[Plato]
|
2148
|
To gain knowledge, turn away from the world of change, and focus on true goodness
[Plato]
|
4547
|
Plato measured the degree of reality by the degree of value
[Nietzsche on Plato]
|
2149
|
Reluctant rulers make a better and more unified administration
[Plato]
|
9861
|
The same thing is both one and an unlimited number at the same time
[Plato]
|
9862
|
To become rational, philosophers must rise from becoming into being
[Plato]
|
9863
|
We aim for elevated discussion of pure numbers, not attaching them to physical objects
[Plato]
|
9864
|
In pure numbers, all ones are equal, with no internal parts
[Plato]
|
8727
|
Geometry is not an activity, but the study of unchanging knowledge
[Plato]
|
8726
|
Geometry can lead the mind upwards to truth and philosophy
[Plato]
|
2151
|
Dialectic is the only method of inquiry which uproots the things which it takes for granted
[Plato]
|
2152
|
Dialectic is the highest and most important part of the curriculum
[Plato]
|
2153
|
Compulsory intellectual work never remains in the mind
[Plato]
|
2154
|
The ability to take an overview is the distinguishing mark of a dialectician
[Plato]
|
4011
|
For Plato, rationality is a vision of and love of a cosmic rational order
[Plato, by Taylor,C]
|
2155
|
True goodness requires mental unity and harmony
[Plato]
|
23316
|
For Plato and Aristotle there is no will; there is only rational desire for what is seen as good
[Plato, by Frede,M]
|
2156
|
There are three types of pleasure, for reason, for spirit and for appetite
[Plato]
|
2157
|
Nice smells are intensive, have no preceding pain, and no bad after-effect
[Plato]
|
2158
|
Pleasure-seekers desperately seek illusory satisfaction, like filling a leaky vessel
[Plato]
|
17
|
A Form applies to a set of particular things with the same name
[Plato]
|
2159
|
Craftsmen making furniture refer to the form, but no one manufactures the form of furniture
[Plato]
|
16565
|
Without the surface decoration, poetry shows only appearances and nothing of what is real
[Plato]
|
2160
|
Representation is two steps removed from the truth
[Plato]
|
2162
|
If theory and practice conflict, the best part of the mind accepts theory, so the other part is of lower grade
[Plato]
|
2163
|
Artists should be excluded from a law-abiding community, because they destroy the rational mind
[Plato]
|
2164
|
Bad is always destructive, where good preserves and benefits
[Plato]
|
2165
|
Something is unlikely to be immortal if it is imperfectly made from diverse parts
[Plato]
|
2166
|
We should behave well even if invisible, for the health of the mind
[Plato]
|
2168
|
Clever criminals do well at first, but not in the long run
[Plato]
|
5944
|
For Plato, virtue is its own reward
[Lawson-Tancred on Plato]
|