Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy

About Plato's Philebus 171
"What you enjoin me to do is not difficult,"55 and he repeats: "It is
easy."
Let us be on our guard. All wise men agree, and thereby really
exalt themselves, says Socrates, that voiig is king of heaven and earth.
Socrates adds: "Perhaps they are
right."
50
What foUows is indeed an easy, but not too convincing "cosmological"
account, which ends with the statement that voiig belongs to that of the
all."
67
four tribes which was called "the cause of Notice, please, again,
"of
all."
And Socrates adds: "Now,
you have at last your
answer."
Protarchus: "Yes, and a very sufficient one; and yet you answered without
my noticing it." 5S Socrates: "Yes, Protarchus, for sometimes playing
provides rest from serious
pursuit."
"cosmological"
59 We understand: the
account, which makes the voiig the cause of all the other tribes, was a
playful account. We are not sure whether this voiig is the "divine
mentioned before. And let us not forget that,
within the confines
of human life, the best, voiig could obtain, was the second prize.
Socrates concludes this entire discussion of the four tribes by pointing to
voiig and to pleasure. He does not mention anything pertaining
and to the "mixture."
to "limit"
Let us remember, he says, "that votig was akin to
cause and belonged roughly speaking [o"xe86v] to this tribe and that
pleasure was itself limitless and belonged to the tribe which, in and by
end." 60
itself, has not and never will have either beginning or middle or
We must add that this holds also for pain. As we have seen, the dialogue,
too, has neither a beginning nor an end, and for that matter, no middle.
The graph of a Platonic dialogue usually not always looks like this:
But the graph of the Philebus looks hke this:
55 28 C.
5 Ibid.
57 30 E.
58 Ibid.
58 Ibid.
60 31 A.