illustrated by examples in the Sophist and Statesman. Notwithstanding the
differences of style, many resemblances may be noticed between the Philebus
and Gorgias. The theory of the simultaneousness of pleasure and pain is
common to both of them (Phil. Gorg.); there is also a common tendency in
them to take up arms against pleasure, although the view of the Philebus,
which is probably the later of the two dialogues, is the more moderate.
There seems to be an allusion to the passage in the Gorgias, in which
Socrates dilates on the pleasures of itching and scratching. Nor is there
any real discrepancy in the manner in which Gorgias and his art are spoken
of in the two dialogues. For Socrates is far from implying that the art of
rhetoric has a real sphere of practical usefulness: he only means that the
refutation of the claims of Gorgias is not necessary for his present
purpose. He is saying in effect: 'Admit, if you please, that rhetoric is
the greatest and usefullest of sciences:--this does not prove that
dialectic is not the purest and most exact.' From the Sophist and
Statesman we know that his hostility towards the sophists and rhetoricians
was not mitigated in later life; although both in the Statesman and Laws he
admits of a higher use of rhetoric.

Reasons have been already given for assigning a late date to the Philebus.
That the date is probably later than that of the Republic, may be further
argued on the following grounds:--1. The general resemblance to the later
dialogues and to the Laws: 2. The more complete account of the nature of
good and pleasure: 3. The distinction between perception, memory,
recollection, and opinion which indicates a great progress in psychology;
also between understanding and imagination, which is described under the
figure of the scribe and the painter. A superficial notion may arise that
Plato probably wrote shorter dialogues, such as the Philebus, the Sophist,
and the Statesman, as studies or preparations for longer ones. This view
may be natural; but on further reflection is seen to be fallacious, because