[585a]
they truly think themselves to be, and really
are, in a state of pain, but, when they move from pain to the middle and
neutral state, they intensely believe that they are approaching fulfillment
and pleasure, and just as if, in ignorance of white, they were comparing
grey with black,1 so, being inexperienced
in true pleasure, they are deceived by viewing painlessness in its relation
to pain?” “No, by Zeus,” he said,
“it would not surprise me, but far rather if it were not
so.” “In this way, then, consider it.2 Are
not hunger and thirst and similar states inanitions or emptinesses3
1 Cf. Aristot.Met. 1011 b 30-31 and Eth. Nic. 1154 a 30διὰ τὸ παρὰ τὸ ἐναντίον φαίνεσθαι.
2 The argument from the parallel of body and mind here belongs to what we have called confirmation. Cf. What Plato Said, p. 528, on Phaedo 78 B, The figurative use of repletion and nutrition is not to be pressed in proof of contradictions with the Philebus or Gorgias. Cf. Matthew v. 6 “Hunger and thirst after righteousness.”
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
Purchase a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from Amazon.com
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.