Probably one of Plato's later dialogues (c.355 BC), the topic of this work, of considerable importance to its author, is the nature of the good life. The conclusions on this subject are supported by a metaphysical excursus and discussions of pleasure and knowledge - the two ingredients of the good life. This is Plato's most deliberate and thorough attempt to describe the good life and may be regarded as the canonical Platonic text on the subject of the way men ought to live - a theme which runs through the majority of the ...
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Probably one of Plato's later dialogues (c.355 BC), the topic of this work, of considerable importance to its author, is the nature of the good life. The conclusions on this subject are supported by a metaphysical excursus and discussions of pleasure and knowledge - the two ingredients of the good life. This is Plato's most deliberate and thorough attempt to describe the good life and may be regarded as the canonical Platonic text on the subject of the way men ought to live - a theme which runs through the majority of the other dialogues. It is one of the earliest discussions of ethics - not in the sense of discussing what goodness is, but in the more direct sense of what motivates us and how we become good. With a wealth of reference to other thinkers and schools of thought, the dialogue dismisses hedonism, or the pursuit of pleasure for its own sake, as espoused by Philebus and etsablishes the pursuit of knowledge as a higher goal.
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