ΦΙΛΗΒΟΣ
Greek text
Plato · Greek text
The Philebus asks whether the good for human beings is pleasure or intelligence. Plato's answer is neither alone: the good life is a mixture, but one in which reason, measure, and proportion hold first place, and pleasure only a subordinate one.
To analyze this, the dialogue lays out a subtle metaphysics of limit and the unlimited — all good things arising when measure is imposed on the indefinite — a scheme that the later Platonists prized as a key to the structure of reality itself.
Cast as a debate over whether pleasure or wisdom is the good, the Platonic dialogue answers that neither alone suffices: the best life is a mixture, ordered by measure. Along the way Socrates introduces the fourfold division of all things into the unlimited, the limit, their mixture, and the cause of the mixture.
This pairing of limit (peras) and the unlimited (apeiron) — the imposing of measure upon the indefinite — became one of the most fertile themes the later tradition drew from Plato, shaping the Neoplatonic account of how the many proceed from the One.
From the Plato Scroll Encyclopedia · open this entry in the reader
Σωκράτης: ὅρα δή, Πρώταρχε, τίνα λόγον μέλλεις παρὰ Φιλήβου δέχεσθαι νυνὶ καὶ πρὸς τίνα τὸν παρ᾽ ἡμῖν ἀμφισβητεῖν,
ἐὰν μή σοι κατὰ νοῦν ᾖ λεγόμενος. βούλει συγκεφαλαιωσώμεθα ἑκάτερον;
Πρώταρχος: πάνυ μὲν οὖν.
Σωκράτης: Φίληβος μὲν τοίνυν ἀγαθὸν εἶναί φησι τὸ χαίρειν πᾶσι ζῴοις καὶ τὴν ἡδονὴν καὶ τέρψιν, καὶ ὅσα τοῦ γένους ἐστὶ τούτου σύμφωνα: τὸ δὲ παρ᾽ ἡμῶν ἀμφισβήτημά ἐστι μὴ ταῦτα, ἀλλὰ τὸ φρονεῖν καὶ τὸ νοεῖν καὶ μεμνῆσθαι καὶ τὰ τούτων αὖ συγγενῆ, δόξαν τε ὀρθὴν καὶ ἀληθεῖς λογισμούς, τῆς γε ἡδονῆς ἀμείνω καὶ λῴω γίγνεσθαι σύμπασιν ὅσαπερ
Σωκράτης: αὐτῶν δυνατὰ μεταλαβεῖν: δυνατοῖς δὲ μετασχεῖν ὠφελιμώτατον ἁπάντων εἶναι πᾶσι τοῖς οὖσί τε καὶ ἐσομένοις. μῶν οὐχ οὕτω πως λέγομεν, ὦ Φίληβε, ἑκάτεροι;
Φίληβος: πάντων μὲν οὖν μάλιστα, ὦ Σώκρατες.
Σωκράτης: δέχῃ δὴ τοῦτον τὸν νῦν διδόμενον, ὦ Πρώταρχε, λόγον;
Πρώταρχος: ἀνάγκη δέχεσθαι: Φίληβος γὰρ ἡμῖν ὁ καλὸς ἀπείρηκεν.
Σωκράτης: δεῖ δὴ περὶ αὐτῶν τρόπῳ παντὶ τἀληθές πῃ περανθῆναι;
Πρώταρχος: δεῖ γὰρ οὖν.
Σωκράτης: ἴθι δή, πρὸς τούτοις διομολογησώμεθα καὶ τόδε.
Πρώταρχος: τὸ ποῖον;
Σωκράτης: ὡς νῦν ἡμῶν ἑκάτερος ἕξιν ψυχῆς καὶ διάθεσιν ἀποφαίνειν τινὰ ἐπιχειρήσει τὴν δυναμένην ἀνθρώποις πᾶσι τὸν βίον εὐδαίμονα παρέχειν. ἆρ᾽ οὐχ οὕτως;
Πρώταρχος: οὕτω μὲν οὖν.
Σωκράτης: οὐκοῦν ὑμεῖς μὲν τὴν τοῦ χαίρειν, ἡμεῖς δ᾽ αὖ τὴν τοῦ φρονεῖν;
Πρώταρχος: ἔστι ταῦτα.
Σωκράτης: τί δ᾽ ἂν ἄλλη τις κρείττων τούτων φανῇ; μῶν οὐκ,
Σωκράτης: ἂν μὲν ἡδονῇ μᾶλλον φαίνηται συγγενής, ἡττώμεθα μὲν ἀμφότεροι τοῦ ταῦτα ἔχοντος βεβαίως βίου, κρατεῖ δὲ ὁ τῆς
Σωκράτης: ἡδονῆς τὸν τῆς φρονήσεως;
Πρώταρχος: ναί.
Σωκράτης: ἂν δέ γε φρονήσει, νικᾷ μὲν φρόνησις τὴν ἡδονήν, ἡ δὲ ἡττᾶται; ταῦθ᾽ οὕτως ὁμολογούμενά φατε, ἢ πῶς;
Πρώταρχος: ἐμοὶ γοῦν δοκεῖ.
Σωκράτης: τί δὲ Φιλήβῳ; τί φῄς;
Φίληβος: ἐμοὶ μὲν πάντως νικᾶν ἡδονὴ δοκεῖ καὶ δόξει: σὺ δέ, Πρώταρχε, αὐτὸς γνώσῃ.
Πρώταρχος: παραδούς, ὦ Φίληβε, ἡμῖν τὸν λόγον οὐκ ἂν ἔτι κύριος εἴης τῆς πρὸς Σωκράτη ὁμολογίας ἢ καὶ τοὐναντίον.
Φίληβος: ἀληθῆ λέγεις: ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἀφοσιοῦμαι καὶ μαρτύρομαι νῦν αὐτὴν τὴν θεόν.
Πρώταρχος: καὶ ἡμεῖς σοι τούτων γε αὐτῶν συμμάρτυρες ἂν εἶμεν, ὡς ταῦτα ἔλεγες ἃ λέγεις. ἀλλὰ δὴ τὰ μετὰ ταῦτα ἑξῆς, ὦ Σώκρατες, ὅμως καὶ μετὰ Φιλήβου ἑκόντος ἢ ὅπως ἂν ἐθέλῃ πειρώμεθα περαίνειν.
Σωκράτης: πειρατέον, ἀπ᾽ αὐτῆς δὴ τῆς θεοῦ, ἣν ὅδε Ἀφροδίτην μὲν λέγεσθαί φησι, τὸ δ᾽ ἀληθέστατον αὐτῆς ὄνομα ἡδονὴν εἶναι.
Πρώταρχος: ὀρθότατα.
Continue reading in Plato Scroll →
The Athenian who turned Socratic conversation into a written philosophy and founded the Academy.
Plato was born around 428 BCE into a wealthy and politically prominent Athenian family; through his mother Perictione the family traced kinship to the lawgiver Solon, and his relatives Critias and Charmides were among the oligarchs of the Thirty. A late tradition says his given name was Aristocles and that 'Plato' — from the word for 'broad' — was a nickname. He grew up during the long agony of the Peloponnesian War and came of age amid the violence and disillusion that followed Athens' defeat.
Plato · Greek text. Each edition has its page, the reader and a plain-text file:
PLATO SCROLL