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Single Idea 4319

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

Full Idea

In a fool's mind desire is a leaky jar, …which is an analogy for the mind's insatiability, showing we should prefer an orderly life, in which one is content with whatever is to hand, to a self-indulgent life of insatiable desire.

Gist of Idea

In a fool's mind desire is like a leaky jar, insatiable in its desires, and order and contentment are better

Source

Plato (Gorgias [c.387 BCE], 493b)

Book Ref

Plato: 'Gorgias', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP World's Classics 1994], p.80

A Reaction

This points to an interesting paradox, that pleasure requires the misery of desire. And yet absence of desire is like death. An Aristotelian mean, of living according to nature, seems the escape route.

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]