Plato’s Philebus, An Examination of Pleasure (Live Reading)

In Philebus, one of his last dialogues, Plato pursues a thorough examination of the relationship between the good and pleasure through the application of Pythagorean categories. It was composed between c. 367 and 348 BC, this is to say Plato's last creative period, and there is some consensus for a date in the 350s. Nothing is known, outside of what the text provides, about the principal interlocutors and specific historical circumstances only play a minor role in the dialogue.

Philebus takes as its starting point the foundation of pleasure in intelligence, thought and memory to explore broader questions such as the relationship of pleasure to "one" and the "many", the varieties of pleasure, their respective legitimacy, the relative unity of the experience of pleasure and its relation to ontology as well as the place of pleasure in the hierarchy of human pursuits and attributes.

The reading sessions will take into consideration the two most important commentaries on Philebus. The first is by Damascius (458-468 - after 538 AD), probably the last head of the (neo-)platonic Academy of Athens author of two further commentaries on platonic works. The second was authored by Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) the great Florentine Neoplatonist who, through his translations and commentaries, most notably the Platonic Theology, influenced more than anyone else the reception of Plato in the modern era.

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This is a live reading of the Philebus. This Plato group meets on Saturdays and has previously read the Gorgias, Critias, Laches, Timaeus, and other works including texts for contextualisation such as Gorgias’ Praise of Helen. The reading is intended for well-informed generalists even though specialists are obviously welcome. It is our aspiration to read the Platonic corpus over a long period of time.

The host is Constantine Lerounis, a distinguished Greek philologist, author of Four Access Points to Shakespeare’s Works (in Greek) and Former Advisor to the President of the Hellenic Republic. March 23 is the introductory session for Philebus and hence an ideal opportunity to join the group without having to do any catching up.

The text can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/da635ji1f3ruvvoc4lw3e/philebus.pdf?rlkey=kfkuk8gj8hrbdheex35m7cvg6&dl=0