Single Idea 2158

[catalogued under 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 Reference

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.