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Single Idea 387
[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 3. Pleasure / b. Types of pleasure
]
Full Idea
A tiny little pleasure is, if uncontaminated by pain, always more pleasant, truer and finer than a large amount.
Clarification
'Fine' is the Greek word 'kalon', which also translates as 'beautiful'
Gist of Idea
A small pure pleasure is much finer than a large one contaminated with pain
Source
Plato (Philebus [c.353 BCE], 53b)
Book Ref
Plato: 'Philebus', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [Penguin 1982], p.124
A Reaction
More Platonic puritanism. Is a complete absence of pleasure the highest pleasure of all? I don't think I understand 'truer'. Why would a pleasure be false because it is intense?
The
25 ideas
from 'Philebus'
371
|
Reason, memory, truth and wisdom are far better than pleasure, for those who can attain them
[Plato]
|
373
|
Pleasure is certainly very pleasant, but it doesn't follow that all pleasures are good
[Plato]
|
15845
|
It seems absurd that seeing a person's limbs, the one is many, and yet the many are one
[Plato]
|
374
|
If one object is divided into its parts, someone can then say that one are many and many is one
[Plato]
|
4447
|
If the good is one, is it unchanged when it is in particulars, and is it then separated from itself?
[Plato]
|
15856
|
A thing can become one or many, depending on how we talk about it
[Plato]
|
376
|
Would you prefer a life of pleasure without reason, or one of reason without pleasure?
[Plato]
|
377
|
If you lived a life of maximum pleasure, would you still be lacking anything?
[Plato]
|
378
|
A life of pure pleasure with no intellect is the life of a jellyfish
[Plato]
|
379
|
The good must be sufficient and perfect, and neither intellect nor pleasure are that
[Plato]
|
381
|
We feel pleasure when we approach our natural state of harmony
[Plato]
|
382
|
It is unlikely that the gods feel either pleasure or pain
[Plato]
|
385
|
Some of the pleasures and pains we feel are false
[Plato]
|
386
|
Intense pleasure and pain are not felt in a good body, but in a worthless one
[Plato]
|
387
|
A small pure pleasure is much finer than a large one contaminated with pain
[Plato]
|
388
|
Hedonists must say that someone in pain is bad, even if they are virtuous
[Plato]
|
9865
|
Daily arithmetic counts unequal things, but pure arithmetic equalises them
[Plato]
|
389
|
How can you be certain about aspects of the world if they aren't constant?
[Plato]
|
9867
|
It is absurd to define a circle, but not be able to recognise a real one
[Plato]
|
14503
|
If a mixture does not contain measure and proportion, it is corrupted and destroyed
[Plato]
|
390
|
If goodness involves moderation and proportion, then it seems to be found in beauty
[Plato]
|
15857
|
Any mixture which lacks measure and proportion doesn't even count as a mixture at all
[Plato]
|
391
|
The good involves beauty, proportion and truth
[Plato]
|
393
|
Good first, then beauty, then reason, then knowledge, then pleasure
[Plato, by PG]
|
392
|
Neither intellect nor pleasure are the good, because they are not perfect and self-sufficient
[Plato]
|