GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

4O8 .
ETHICS
pain. Many pleasures, Plato points out, are dependent
for their pleasantness upon the degree of the preceding
dissatisfaction to which they are relative. Thus the pleasure
of the convalescent is dependent upon the fact of his
preceding illness; of the resting man upon his preceding
fatigue; of the water-drinking man upon his preceding
thirst. These states and activities, convalescing, resting,
water-drinking, are characterized by the sort of pleasure
whose nature, when it is experienced in its crudest form,
as, for example, in the form of relief from long and wearing
pain, we all recognize for what it is. We recognize, that is
to say, that the pleasure experienced on relief from pain
owes its pleasantness solely to the fact that we are no longer
suffering the pain which we formerly suffered. These, then,
are impure pleasures and up to this point Plato agrees
with Schopenhauer. There are, however, other pleasures
which, Plato points out, are not dependent upon want or
need. The smell of violets and the taste of chocolate, are
simple examples of these. One's pleasure in a bright frosty
morning in winter, or in the colours of the leaves on an
October afternoon, are more complex examples of the
same class. Pre-eminent in the class of pure pleasures
Plato places the pleasures of intellectual and aesthetic
activity. Nor, I think, can it be denied that the very
real pleasures of listening to good music, of looking at good
pictures, of solving a difficult problem, of carrying on an
abstract discussion, of pursuing a difficult but valuable
line of research, are in no sense determined by, or dependent
upon, a preceding state of need, or a preceding experience
of pain. We are not made miserable because we are not
listening to music, although we may enjoy ourselves very
much when we are.
(3) T/at the De&efor Impure Pleasures Grows With What
It Feeds on. Plato has a further criticism to make of the
impure pleasures. The need for them grows, he points
out, with its satisfaction. Yet although, or, it may be,
because it grows, it is ever harder to satisfy. Hie pain
of the ever-growing need is greater, the pleasure rf the