Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy

About Plato's Philebus 169
and produce balance and right measure. 41 Such mathematical partner
ships engender, for example, health, establish the entire genuine art of
music, bring about the temperate seasons and all the bounties of our world,
beauty and strength of the body, and all the beauties of the soul. And
Socrates, addressing Philebus directly and speaking about that proper
partnership (6p0f| xoiycovia) 42 of mathematical ratios, has this to say:
"For this goddess, my beautiful Philebus, beholding the wanton violence
and universal wickedness which prevailed, since there was no limit of
pleasures or of excess in them, established law and order [vo^og xai Ta|ig]
in which there is limit. You say she exhausted us; I say, on the contrary,
she kept us
safe."
43 Socrates addresses Philebus, but we cannot help
thinking of Eudoxus. Philebus remains completely
silent. Socrates turns
to Protarchus: "How does this appear to you, Protarchus?"
Protarchus answers: "It is very much how I feel, Socrates." 44
And
Let us conclude: the common power of the two dpxai determines the
mixture. Sometimes the community of this power is lacking.
Socrates turns now to the fourth tribe, the cause. You wUl remember
that Socrates seemed somewhat reluctant to add this fourth to the first
three. And indeed, is there any need for it? The common power of the
"Limitless'
and the "Limit"
appeared as the cause of the mixture and of
what is engendered in this mixture. Listen now to Socrates'
words:
"Should I sound a false note if I caUed the fourth the cause of the mixture
and
generation?"
45 And listen to what Socrates one moment earlier says
with regard to all the first three tribes: "That which fabricates all these,
the cause, we call the fourth, as it has been sufficiently
shown to be
distinct from the others."46 That has not been shown at all! How can
ultimate sources, dpxi, be caused by something else? If that were so, the
first two tribes, the "Limitless"
are.
and the "Limit,"
would not be what they
"cause,"
The exploration of this fourth tribe, the is left pending, and
Socrates makes a new transition, which helps him to turn backwards.
What was the purpose, he asks, of coming to the point they have
reached? They were trying to find out whether the second prize belonged
to pleasure or to thoughtfulness ((ppovnaig). They had posited, Socrates
reminds Protarchus and us,
that the mixed life was the victor. We can
see now, he continues, to which tribe it belongs, namely,
tribe, formed by
the mixture of all that is "limitless"
to the third
and all that is
"bound by the limit." 47 And now Socrates asks Philebus to which of the
41 26 A.
42 25 E.
43 26B-C.
44 26 C.
45 27B/C.
46 27 B.
47 27 D.