5 h 4 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
If pleasure feels good, does that make it the best guide to a human life?
Plato’s Philebus opens in the middle of a quarrel. Philebus claims that enjoyment, pleasure and delight are the good for all living creatures. Socrates argues for intelligence: clear thought and knowledge. With Protarchus taking up the argument, the dialogue asks what deserves to steer a life—and whether either rival claim can stand on its own.
The question grows more demanding as Socrates examines what pleasure actually is. Are all pleasures alike? Can some be false? How does knowledge differ from opinion? The discussion moves from the familiar relief of drinking when thirsty to the puzzle of how one thing can also be many. Each turn asks you to look harder at an apparently simple answer.
What you’ll discover
- Rival guides to life Weigh the claims of pleasure and intelligence as Socrates tests what makes life good.
- Pleasure under scrutiny Consider why pleasures can share a name yet differ widely in kind.
- The puzzle of many Follow an argument about how unity and variety can belong to the same thing.
- Knowledge or opinion Explore a distinction that matters when clear thought competes with the pull of enjoyment.
- An argument taking shape Watch Socrates build his case step by step, questioning answers that first seem obvious.
Who will love it
For readers who love watching an argument being built step by step, and for anyone who has wondered whether pleasure or wisdom should steer a life.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Two rival claims about the good life
- Pleasure is many things, not one
- Sort things by counting the kinds between one and many
- Everything falls into limit, the unlimited, mixture and cause
- Pleasure is a process, and some pleasures are false
- The best life is a mixture, ranked by measure
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- Large print hardcover
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Philebos
by Platon
Socrates debates whether pleasure or intelligence should guide a life, testing what makes it good.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Philebus is a dialogue by Plato, written late in his life, in the middle of the fourth century BC. Socrates is the chief speaker.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Two rival claims about the good life
The dialogue opens in the middle of a quarrel. Philebus, a young man who gives the book its name, holds that the good for all living creatures is enjoyment, pleasure and delight. Socrates takes the opposite side. He says that thinking, remembering and understanding are better than pleasure, and that they bring more benefit to anyone who can share in them.
Philebus soon tires of the debate. He says he will never give up his view, and then he largely drops out of the talk. A young man named Protarchus, who has been listening, takes over the defense of pleasure. This is a neat dramatic touch. The man who holds the thesis is the one who will not argue it, so a more open-minded person must do the work.
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What is Plato's Philebus about?
It is about what makes a human life good. Socrates argues with Protarchus over whether pleasure or intelligence is the better guide, and they conclude that the best life is a mixture, ranked by measure and truth.
Who is Philebus in the dialogue?
Philebus is a young man who holds that pleasure is the good. He gives the dialogue its name but soon stops arguing, and Protarchus takes over the defense of his view against Socrates.
What are limit and the unlimited in Philebus?
The unlimited is whatever can be more or less without end, such as hotter or faster. Limit is the measure and number that bring order. Good things, Plato says, come from mixing the two.
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