In the Platonic dialogue Philebus, the
topic of discussion is the status of the ultimate good and whether it
belongs to pleasure or to knowledge and wisdom. Philebus has his
friend Protarchus argue for the case of pleasure on his behalf, while
Socrates defends the primacy of wisdom. First, Socrates gets Protarchus to concede that there are various sorts of pleasures and
that some pleasures are unlike others. Even though Protarchus tries
to argue that all pleasures should be classified as good since
pleasure is one kind, Socrates draws on the many in one doctrine to
say that within one category various subcategories can be
distinguished with different qualities. (Therefore, there can be
various types of pleasure, good and bad, within the umbrella category
of pleasure.) This touches upon the many/one paradox of how one item,
though one, can be reclassified as a variety of different items that
are all separate. Socrates says the goal of classification is to find
multiplicity within oneness; to take sound(one) and to subdivided
into a finite category of types of sounds, vowels and consonants. The
same would apply to music; musical sound (one) should be defined by
its parts (a set of musical notes.)
Socrates then goes on to take the
elements of the cosmos (one) and to divide them into several classes
that he later associates with pleasure and wisdom. One class of
elements is finite. These elements are measured and defined by ratio,
proportion, and number. The second class is infinite and is defined
by unlimited/infinite elements: qualities that could become
infinitely hotter or colder, drier or wetter, ever-changing and not
fixed or determined. The third class is the compound class that mixes
the finite and the infinite; the infinite and ever-changing qualities
of heat and cold become fixed and determined by specific quantities
and ratios. This supposedly produces harmony. Heat and cold are set
about in the right proportions for the creation of life, a healthy
body, and the weather of the seasons.
Socrates then goes on to give a
mystical explanation for the coming about of this harmonious mixture.
Since within a person, there is a balancing factor, the soul, that
mixes the infinite ever-changing elements in the proper proportions
for the functions of health, life, and action, there exists a similar
factor on the larger scale of the cosmos. Within the universe, the
universal soul, defined as the fourth class of elements, is
responsible for regulating the infinite forces of heat, cold,
dryness, wetness, speed, and slowness to create a balanced,
well-functioning whole by uniting the infinite class of unstable
mutable elements with the finite class of proportion and ratio.
Ironically enough, Socrates asks for the help of a god during the
dialogue to help him come up with this conclusion, which underlines
the rather mystical bent of what could otherwise be interpreted as a
simply “rational” philosophical argument. In pursuing this
argument, Socrates adds a further literary, mythical touch to it by
saying that since the element of fire within us is but a small and
puny force that is a part of the much larger, more powerful force of
fire in the universe as a whole, so is the soul within us only a weak
microcosm of the more powerful universal soul. In this way, the fire
and the soul of the body transcend the human individual and gain a
cosmological force, imbuing Plato's discourse on the elements with a
theological grandeur worthy of Hesiod.
Of course, the four class division
(three defined first, the soul added as a fourth class later) serves
to undermine the status of [pleasure[. You see, pleasure is in the
infinitive class of elements where everything is chaotic and lacks
order, proportion, and harmony. Hence, this very definition of
pleasure already gives us a hint that Socrates will define it at best
as something wild and unpredictable, at worst as something degenerate
and dissolute. Dissolute is the perfect word for the conception of
pleasure advocated by Socrates since he defines pleasure as a
phenomenon that results from the restoration of the dissolved harmony
of the infinite and the finite. When the moisture in an animal
required for health dries up, the restoration of this natural state
brings about feelings of pleasure. However, this pleasure does not
come about without preceding pain, since restoration is preceded by
dissolution. The implication of this, however, is that on the
balance, pleasure is not really worthy of pursuit, since it is always
balanced out by pain. Socrates points out that the most intense
pleasure is to be encountered in severe states of illness since the
pleasures of restoration to a healthier state, however temporary,
will reach incredible heights of sensation. The relief of minor
pains, itching by scratching, by contrast, will produce rather faint
experiences of pleasure. Socrates argues that the best pleasures are
those that don't involve concomitant pains; unsurprisingly these
pleasures involve the contemplation of objects in the finite class –
the reveling in the beauty of the form of perfect lines, planes, and
circles] that have been measured out by experts in their craft. (Just
like the best white is the one that is the purest and less mixed with
other colors, the best pleasure is the one that is pleasure only and
has the least admixture of pain.) Socrates does raise the possible
objection that the knowledge of perfect forms may be accompanied by
the pain of regret that one has forgotten them, only to put it aside
by concluding that such regret is abstract. It only takes place in
thought and reflection and therefore does not involve pain. This is
unlike the pleasure of eating which involves the previous, viscerally
felt pain of hunger.
However, it turns out that without
reflection, those visceral pleasures are meaningless; that in and of
itself serves to disqualify pleasure as the ultimate good. Socrates
describes a life of pleasure without knowledge and gets Protarchus to
admit that pleasure cannot trump mind since without knowledge
pleasures will be forgotten. The person who experienced pleasure
won't either be aware of it or able to anticipate and plan for future
instances. The life of pleasure without mind is summed up in a
dehumanizing metaphor: to live pleasure and not to know that you are
living it is to be akin to an oyster. However, the life of mind
without any pleasure or sensation is deemed as worthless too. The
mixed life of sensations and pleasures “mixed” with ratio and
proportion for harmony and health is the favored good life.
But the key ingredient and the ultimate
good that creates the mixture is measure. Socrates therefore
establishes the arts and sciences dealing with exact calculation and
measurement as the most important ones that are to be more valued
than sciences involving inexact/approximate calculation and
intuition/skill. (One of the arts involving intuition is music.) It
is noteworthy that in the mix that constitutes the desired mixed
life, the impure pleasures that are mixed with pains are left out of
it by Socrates because they cause madness. It is noteworthy that Socrates leaves
out the impure pleasures that are accompanied by pains out of the mix
that constitutes the desired life because they cause madness. Precise
calculations required for a balanced harmonious life are thwarted by
the mental pleasures of anticipating illusory scenarios of fortuitous
events. Furthermore, the proportions of pleasure are exaggerated at
close distance. This may lead a person to mistake a small pleasure
for a bigger one and potentially to experience a greater magnitude of
pain than pleasure.
In this dialogue, Plato establishes
himself as a lover of fair climes and good weather. He certainly
would be no fan of Romanticism and its paintings focused on wild
storms, frothy, gushing waves, furious winds, and lashing rain. The
rhythms of nature are too crazy and too prone to disasters. Plato
wants to tame those infinite forces that know no rhyme or reason.
Temperance, moderation with a precision that would lend itself to
mathematical calculations would be his predilection. Hence the quest
to submit pleasure to measure.