Pagina 406 di 1391

1. Plato's account of pleasure is remarkable for moderation, and

in this respect contrasts with the later Platonists and the views

which are attributed to them by Aristotle. He is not, like the

Cynics, opposed to all pleasure, but rather desires that the

several parts of the soul shall have their natural satisfaction;

he even agrees with the Epicureans in describing pleasure as

something more than the absence of pain. This is proved by the

circumstance that there are pleasures which have no antecedent

pains (as he also remarks in the Philebus), such as the pleasures

of smell, and also the pleasures of hope and anticipation. In the

previous book he had made the distinction between necessary and

unnecessary pleasure, which is repeated by Aristotle, and he now

observes that there are a further class of 'wild beast'

pleasures, corresponding to Aristotle's (Greek).