Plato's "Philebus" examines whether pleasure or knowledge leads to the good life through a dialogue between Socrates and his companions. This ancient Greek philosophical work explores the relationship between wisdom, pleasure, and human happiness in Plato's characteristic conversational style, presented here in Benjamin Jowett's translation.
SOCRATES: Observe, Protarchus, the nature of the position which you are now going to take from Philebus, and what the other position is which I maintain, and which, if you do not approve of it, is to be controverted by you. Shall you and I sum up the two sides? SOCRATES: Philebus was saying that enjoyment and pleasure and delight, and the class of feelings akin to them, are a good to every living being, whereas I contend, that not these, but wisdom and intelligence and memory, and their kindred, right opinion and true reasoning, are better and more desirable than pleasure for all who are able to partake of them, and that to all such who are or ever will be they are the most advantageous of all things. Have I not given, Philebus, a fair statement of the two sides of the argument? PHILEBUS: Nothing could be fairer, Socrates.Continue reading →
This is the Benjamin Jowett translation, a public-domain English text. Marginalia presents it unabridged, with chapter navigation, your reading position saved, and optional AI commentary on any passage.
Ancient Greece's most influential philosopher, this student of Socrates founded the Academy in Athens around 387 BCE and taught Aristotle. Through dialogues like "The Republic," he explored justice, truth, and ideal government, introducing concepts like the Theory of Forms that shaped Western thought for over two millennia. All works by Plato →
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