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Single Idea 20845

[from 'fragments/reports' by Chrysippus, in 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 3. Pleasure / c. Value of pleasure ]

Full Idea

Chrysippus (in his On Pleasure) denies even of pleasure that it is a good; for there are also shameful pleasures, and nothing shameful is good.

Gist of Idea

There are shameful pleasures, and nothing shameful is good, so pleasure is not a good

Source

report of Chrysippus (fragments/reports [c.240 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 07.103

Book Reference

'The Stoics Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B/Gerson,L.P. [Hackett 2008], p.117


A Reaction

Socrates seems to have started this line of the thought, to argue that pleasure is not The Good. Stoics are more puritanical. Nothing counts as good if it is capable of being bad. Thus good pleasures are not good, which sounds odd.

Related Ideas

Idea 392 Neither intellect nor pleasure are the good, because they are not perfect and self-sufficient [Plato]

Idea 2070 Even people who think pleasure is the good admit that there are bad pleasures [Plato]