플라톤 - 필레보스 [Plato - Philebus]

<Philebus>

 

*In the Philebus wisdom and pleasure are analyzed and contrasted again and again, always with the conclusion that the things of the mind are superior to all the enjoyments of the senses. Some pleasures are innocent and can have a part in the good life, but mind is a thousand times nearer and more akin to the excellent than any or all pleasures. (1086)

*All things, so it ran, that are said to be consist of a one and a many, and have in their nature a conjunction of limit and unlimitedness. (1092)

*The sound that proceeds through our mouths, yours and mine and everybody's is one, isn't it, and also an unlimited variety? (1093)

(하나이면서 다수라는 것은 형상과 현상을 구별지어 보는 것이라고 할 수 있으리라.)

*Philebus maintains that pleasure is the proper quest of all living creatures, and that all ought to aim at it; in fact he says that the good for all is pleasure and nothing else, these two terms, pleasure and good, being properly applied to one thing, one single existent. Socrates on the other hand maintains that they are not one thing, but two, in fact as in name; 'good' and 'pleasant' are different from one another, and intelligence has more claim to be ranked as good than pleasure. (1142)

*Socrates: 'Dear Pleasures--if that is the name by which I should call you, or whatever it ought to be--would you not choose to live in company with all intelligence rather than apart from any? . . .

'It is disadvantageous and hardly possible that one family should be kept in solitude and isolation, perfectly clear of all others, but our view is that, family for family, we cannot do better than have the family of knowledge to live with us, knowledge of all things in general and of each of ourselves in particular to the fullest extent possible.'

 

<Burnet, John, Greek Philosophy>

*The two positions are more distinctly stated thus. That of Philebos is that Pleasure, understood in its widest sense as including joy, delight, and so forth, is the highest good for all living beings without exception. That of Sokrates is that Thought, understood in its widest sense as including memory, right belief, true reasoning, and so forth, is the highest good for all living beings that are capable of it. (265)

*If we say that the one is, it seems to become two on our hands; while, if we say that sensible things participate in it, it is either broken up into parts and so becomes infinitely many, or the whole form must be present in each of the participants, so that we have an infinite number of ones alongside of the one one. (266)

*. . .so far as human life is concerned, good things are all to be found in the Mixture. It is just for that reason that the 'mixed life', which includes both Thought and Pleasure, is found to be superior, not only to the life of Pleasure alone, but also to the life of Thought alone. (269)

*. . . the mature philosophy of Plato found reality, whether intelligible or sensible, in the combination of matter and form, and not in either separately. (270)

 

(요약)

(추석과 감기로 인해 읽는 기간이 늘어지고 해서 내용 기억이 흐릿하다.)

소크라테스와 프로타커스(Protachus)의 논쟁을 다루고 있는 이 대화편은 ‘우리가 삶에서 무엇을 추구할 것인가, 아니면 어떤 삶이 바람직한가’하는 문제를 다루고 있다. 이 두 사람의 주장은 소크라테스가 정리한 대로 다음처럼 제시될 수 있다.

 

Philebus maintains that pleasure is the proper quest of all living creatures, and that all ought to aim at it; in fact he says that the good for all is pleasure and nothing else, these two terms, pleasure and good, being properly applied to one thing, one single existent. Socrates on the other hand maintains that they are not one thing, but two, in fact as in name; 'good' and 'pleasant' are different from one another, and intelligence has more claim to be ranked as good than pleasure. (1142)

 

삶의 목적이 ‘선(good)'을 추구하는 것이라고 할 때, 선이라는 것이 무엇과 더 밀접한 관련을 갖고 있는가, 즐거움이 선인가, 아니면 지성(생각)이 선인가? 여기서 한 걸음 더 나아가 본다면 삶의 목적은 행복인가? 아니면 진리의 추구인가?

소크라테스는 즐거움에는 좋은 즐거움과 나쁜 즐거움이 있기 때문에, 즐거움이 곧 선이 될 수는 없다고 못 박는다. 또 삶에서 즐거움이 갖는 의미를 부인하지는 않지만, 즐거움이 지성과 동떨어져서는 안 된다고 주장하며, 지성이나 지식이 이 삶에서 갖는 의미를 강조한다. 버닛은 소크라테스가 이 글에서 주장하는 바를 ‘양자의 혼합’이라고 보고 있다.

. . .so far as human life is concerned, good things are all to be found in the Mixture. It is just for that reason that the 'mixed life', which includes both Thought and Pleasure, is found to be superior, not only to the life of Pleasure alone, but also to the life of Thought alone. (269)

 

내 나름대로의 생각을 덧붙여 본다면, 즐거움이 없는 삶이(미래의 (보장되지 않은) 보다 큰 즐거움을 위한 현재의 고통이나 괴로움까지도 포함하여) 어떤 의미를 지닐지가 미지수이긴 하지만, 즐거움은 즐거움 자체로 끝나는 것이며, 또 어떤 즐거움 혹은 쾌락, 또는 지나친 쾌락은 미래의 고통을 유발할 수도 있다는 점을 간과해서는 안 된다는 점이다. 즐거움과 인식의 추구가 별개의 것인지 아닌지, 어느 것이 더 큰 범주인지 곰곰이 생각을 해보아야겠지만, 인식의 추구가 보다 바람직한 삶과 밀접한 관계를 맺고 있고, 또 그것은 더 나아가, 삶에서 더 큰 즐거움을 누리는 것과도 불가분이라는 생각이 든다. (이 문제도 한 번 공구해 보아야 할 부분이다.)