Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

Philebus by Plato
page 26 of 185 (14%)
consider the matter a little more deeply, even though some lovers of
disorder in the world should ridicule my attempt.

Now the elements earth, air, fire, water, exist in us, and they exist in
the cosmos; but they are purer and fairer in the cosmos than they are in
us, and they come to us from thence. And as we have a soul as well as a
body, in like manner the elements of the finite, the infinite, the union of
the two, and the cause, are found to exist in us. And if they, like the
elements, exist in us, and the three first exist in the world, must not the
fourth or cause which is the noblest of them, exist in the world? And this
cause is wisdom or mind, the royal mind of Zeus, who is the king of all, as
there are other gods who have other noble attributes. Observe how well
this agrees with the testimony of men of old, who affirmed mind to be the
ruler of the universe. And remember that mind belongs to the class which
we term the cause, and pleasure to the infinite or indefinite class. We
will examine the place and origin of both.

What is the origin of pleasure? Her natural seat is the mixed class, in
which health and harmony were placed. Pain is the violation, and pleasure
the restoration of limit. There is a natural union of finite and infinite,
which in hunger, thirst, heat, cold, is impaired--this is painful, but the
return to nature, in which the elements are restored to their normal
proportions, is pleasant. Here is our first class of pleasures. And
another class of pleasures and pains are hopes and fears; these are in the
mind only. And inasmuch as the pleasures are unalloyed by pains and the
pains by pleasures, the examination of them may show us whether all
pleasure is to be desired, or whether this entire desirableness is not
rather the attribute of another class. But if pleasures and pains consist
in the violation and restoration of limit, may there not be a neutral
state, in which there is neither dissolution nor restoration? That is a
DigitalOcean Referral Badge