Abstract

I offer a reading of the Philebus which integrates the ethical issues of the debate between hedonism and intellectualism, the metaphysical perplexities of the One/Many problem, and the mathematical background of the peras/apeiron dichotomy. Given a proper appreciation of the One/Many problem and of peras and apeiron, as well as attention to literary clues, an interesting reading can be given to the examination of pleasure and intellect in the sense that the argument of the priority of one over the other can be taken as a model for the priority of philosophy over sophistry. ;The first chapter presents the One/Many problem in order to effect the turn away from things to Ideas. Intelligible features of a thing and of the world are not to be confused with their occurrences--they are distinct and separate. Also, the unity of any plurality is invisible within that plurality, lying beyond it at another level. The result of these two points is the Platonic dismissal of the thing and turn to Ideas. ;This in turn presents us with a One/Many problem: how the unity addresses and holds its plurality. The model for understanding this is mathematical, namely the relation of the arithmetical to the incommensurable. Chapter 2 presents the relevant mathematics and explicates the key terms 'peras' and 'apeiron'. The model exhibits the primacy of peras over apeiron which is crucial to the last chapter. ;The next three chapters directly address the Philebus. Chapter 3 discusses the four categories of peras, apeiron, mixture and cause. Chapter 4 examines the literary presentation of the philosophical themes and Gadamer's view of the ethical dimension of the One/Many problem. Chapter 5 interprets 32 to 59 as a dialectical ascent to the Good. Not a typology of pleasure, the dialogue works through the activity of experience to ultimate principles. The depth and import of the argument are thereby recovered. "It is not of this or that we speak but of what is most important, the good life."