Philosophy

 In Platos dialogues where he is the mouthpiece of his teacher Socrates, he gives life to the teachings of his teacher through his works, as the historical Socrates did not write down his teachings. Philebus is one of those dialogues, where Socrates discusses with his companions, Philebus and Protarchus. In the beginning of the dialogue Socrates were discussing the states of men which they want to attain. Philebus said that enjoyment, pleasure and delight and the other feelings similar to them. Socrates then stated that those are not the goals to be attained by rather wisdom, intelligence and memory as well as similar traits to them. Using right opinion and reasoning are those that Socrates holds more important. (Plato 2008) The third state that Socrates was referring to was the combination of pleasure and knowledge. In essence it is the middle ground of all the concepts aimed by man in order gain much more in life. Using ones reason, (Socrates knowledge) and emotions (Protarchus pleasure).

Socrates states that dialectic is, that whatever things are said to be is composed of one ad many and have the finite, and the infinite implanted in them seeing, then that such is the order of the world, we too ought in every enquiry this unity we shall find in everything. Having found it, we may proceed to look for two or more if required to and then subdividing each of these units, until at last the unity with which we began is seen not only to be one and many and infinite, but also a definite number the infinite must not be suffered to approach the many until the entire number of the species intermediate between unity and infinity has been discovered- then, and not till then we may rest from division, and without further troubling ourselves about the endless individuals may allow them to drop into infinity. (Plato 2008)
The dialectic is also referred to as the Socratic method, is where Socrates would start a conversation by asking his companions about something and proceed by asking more and more of the same topic further analysis the first question with Socrates guiding the conversation by pointing out some fallacies of the others answer and substituting his own.

Socrates concept of the soul is a combination of the four classes, the finite, infinite, combination of the pleasure and knowledge and the fourth cause, the one which enters into all things, the cause from the universal elements. (Plato 2008) The concept of soul in this dialogue in relation to the mind, reason, cause, knowledge, desire and the body is that the sensations and feelings of the body as experience through pleasure and pain and the harmony of it which are analyzed in the sphere of the body are then processed in the soul and stored as memory, which Socrates calls the preservation of consciousness. This consciousness gives the soul the ability to recover the sensations which the body has experienced. 

The soul, because of our consciousness that stores the previous experiences of the body has the opposite desires as that of the body. Socrates argues that our bodily functions and desires have in them the goal of fulfilling what is inadequate in it, for example the reason why we feel thirst is because there is emptiness in our body, the lack of liquid. Our soul in its recollection of the memories desires for liquids in order to quench the bodily thirst, the state of being emptied and replenished.

In the inquiry of the truth in opinions Socrates asks his companions if there is such a thing as opinion and pleasure. He further asks that why opinions can be either true or false but pleasure can only be true when both of them are real concepts. He gives test of opinion which will lead to a proposition once that observation is validated by another, in which case Memory and perception meet and they and their attendant feelings seem to almost to write down words in the soul, and when the inscribing feeling writes truly, then true opinion and true propositions which are the expressions of opinion come into our souls but when the scribe within us writes falsely, the result is false. (Plato 2008) However, as the question is about the goodness and badness of opinions and pleasures, it is within the area of the mind that tells us that the qualities of those concepts have an innate goodness and badness in them. Just as a wicked man will derive pleasure in wicked things, it can now be said that those pleasures are not good. Since both opinions and pleasures are real concepts, capable of being bad and good in themselves as Socrates stated, it is can be said that the determining factor of them being adjudged as such is the universal norm inherent to men of the goodness and badness of the circumstances in which they find themselves in to.
Socrates describes the mental and bodily pleasure. He first states that pleasure as being both good and bad in the way man aims for it is used for what kind of primary pleasure he feels. Bodily pleasure is the first thing that comes across and is also the easiest because it is based on our senses which we try to attain everyday as sensory beings. Sexual pleasure is put in the mix first as a means of procreation because one of the primary functions of every specie is to reproduce. The pleasure derived from sexual intercourse is both necessary and for amusement of ones senses. For a person who would want to propagate the population, siring children will be his main objective. He or she will find a mate and engage in sexual relations with the purpose of reproducing children, as many as they want according to their plans and needs. This can be derived as pleasure that is in itself good because the aim of it is not contrary to morality. The other side of finding pleasure in sexual relations without the need for reproduction as our genetic impulses requires of us but rather the base emotions of ecstasy f or that specific act in itself can be debated as bad pleasure. In this manner, in line with the argument of Socrates regarding bad pleasure is the purpose of the aim of that pleasure. An example is the sexual intercourse of teenagers without them having the purpose of reproducing is in itself the bad kind of pleasure because. What makes it bad pleasure, thinking along the lines of the argument of Socrates is that we feel that kind of thing, as members of the animal kingdom is when we are ready to reproduce. Without that aim of reproducing but only to satisfy the carnal desires then engaging in that will be bad.

The mental pleasure is derived from the accumulation of knowledge which Socrates favors because knowledge is a good in itself. What motivates man to be knowledgeable is the pleasure it brings when he satisfies his curiosities. In the concept of the soul, it is described as the place where memory is stored for further recollection once the instance presents itself. The mental pleasure is to give the consciousness its purity and nobility for the benefit of others in imparting the knowledge attained and seeking it continuously.

In mixed pleasure, Socrates gave an example of itches. When our bodies are itchy, we scratch it. The moment we do the act of scratching the itch we feel a sensation of both pain and pleasure. The pain we feel is the destruction of the harmony of neutrality of our bodily state because of the emergence of that itch. The simultaneous pleasure we get from scratching that itch is the restoration of the harmony in our bodily state by eliminating the unpleasant effects of that same itch. (Plato 2008)  For unmixed pleasure, it also the attainment of knowledge which can be attributed from the pure pleasure derived from it without any consequences in its requirement and attainment. It is also for the base feelings of either negative or positive like the example given by Socrates such as envy. (Plato 2008) Pleasure derived from envy is a negative pleasure but it gives motivation to do better and to attain wealth in order to compete with other people. There is no pain to be avoided in that feeling because it is replaced by the motivation to attain pleasure, however negative that motivation may be.

In the claim of Gorgias, Socrates stated that the power or faculty, if there be such, which the soul has of loving the truth, and of doing all tings for the sake of it let us search into the pure element of mind and intelligence, and then we shall be able to say whether the science of which I have been speaking is most likely to possess the faculty, or whether there be some which has higher claims. (Plato 2008) Socrates goes on to say that the investigation of the sciences and the arts cannot be attained because they are in their nature changing and mutable and not of an eternal being. The investigations of these disciplines by Gorgias, in the mind of Socrates are concepts which have come to pass or will have come to pass (Plato 2008) The point of Socrates in his brief answer to the query is that the unchangeable and the immutable are the things which are of concern to him. Being convince that it is through reason that man can attain knowledge and the constant reflection of things will make a reasonable man attain the desired knowledge the arts and sciences which in order to be investigated will need the full use of the senses is of no consequence to Socrates. The relativity of the study of those is what made Socrates less interest in the pursuit of studying them, he asked the question how can anything fixed be concerned with that which has no fixedness The concept of the absolute, unchanging and immutable is the primary concern of Socrates in his philosophy. His primary tool for the inquiry to these concepts is mans inherent reason to understand. The reason why he did not answer the question regarding the arts and sciences is the immediate perception of the senses which is used to appreciate that investigation. The quest for the absolute truth cannot be attained by the faculty of the senses, which is why in the dialogues Socrates keeps on pointing out reason as the basis of inference and disregarding the feelings on things with the persons he is discussing with. Reason is used as the means in which the inquiry of the concept of the absolute will be made clear. The concept of happiness is derived as the ultimate end of the filtering of the emotional attributes of pleasure. The state of happiness is a virtue which men attains for and it is a state of mind which reason is used to further analyze its consequences in a persons life. In the analogy of the absolute and the relative, happiness is the ultimate goal of a person because it is a state in which a person arrives with sufficient reflection of his actions while pleasure is the temporary feeling of a surge of emotions that is not tempered by reason.