What Is Pleasant and What Is Good: the Socratic Distinction

Moral Foundations – Honors

What is Pleasant and What is Good: The Socratic Distinction

In Plato’s dialogue, Gorgias, Socrates presents his views concerning the best way to live. In the first part of this paper, I shall reconstruct the argument he makes at 495-497 for the conclusion that what is pleasant is different from what is good. I shall then identify what I take to be the weakest premise of the argument and briefly explain why I find it in need of justification. The following is a reconstruction of Socrates’ argument:

1) Doing well and doing badly are opposites.

2) Opposites cannot exist at the same time.

3) Therefore, doing well and doing badly cannot exist at the same time.

4) When one who is thirsty drinks, one feels pain and pleasure at the same time.

5) Therefore, doing well cannot be the same as feeling pleasure, and doing badly cannot be the same as feeling pain.

6) Doing well is the same as experiencing what is good, and doing badly is the same as experiencing what is bad.

7) Therefore, what is good is not the same as what is pleasant (feeling pleasure), and what is bad is not the same as what is painful (feeling pain).

The point that Socrates is trying to raise is quite simple. Indeed, his argument is very straightforward. He first makes the point that doing well and doing badly cannot exist at the same time, in a specific circumstance, because they are opposites by nature. Then, he claims that when a thirsty person drinks, he or she feels pain and pleasure at the same time. Because pain and pleasure are experienced at the same time in this instance, they cannot equate doing well and doing badly, since the two cannot be experienced at the same time. Thus, if doing well is the same as experiencing what is good and doing badly is the same as experiencing what is bad, then what is good cannot be the same as what is pleasant (or feeling pleasure) and, conversely, what is bad cannot be the same as what is painful (or...