PHIL 833 Plato's Philebus
Plato's Philebus is a fascinating dialogue which focuses primarily on determining the proper nature and place of pleasure and knowledge in a good life. This course is dedicated to a close reading and exploration of the Philebus in light of several thematic threads. We are going to focus on the metaphysical investigation which deciphers the structure of reality in terms of Limit, the Unlimited, the Mixture of the two and the Cause of their mixture, the dialectical method of collection and divisions, the relevance of the metaphysical investigation for a thorough characterization of the good human life, true and false pleasures, pure and impure pleasures and the relation between knowledge and pleasure. By the end of the course everyone will have experienced the true and pure pleasure of learning!