54–55
Socrates
Soc. Now surely that for the sake of which anything is generated is in the class of the good, and that which is generated for the sake of something else, my friend, must be placed in another class.
Protarchus
Pro. Most undeniably.
20
Socrates
Soc. Then if pleasure is a form of generation, we shall be right in placing it in a class other than that of the good, shall we not?
Protarchus
Pro. Quite right.
Socrates
Soc. Then, as I said when we began to discuss this point, we ought to be grateful to him who pointed out that there is only a generation, but no existence, of pleasure; for he is clearly making a laughing-stock of those who assert that pleasure is a good.
Protarchus
Pro. Yes, most emphatically.
Socrates
Soc. And he will also surely make a laughing-stock of all those who find their highest end in forms of generation.
25
Protarchus
Pro. How is that, and to whom do you refer?
Socrates
Soc. To those who, when cured of hunger or thirst or any of the troubles which are cured by generation are pleased because of the generation, as if it were pleasure, and say that they would not wish to live without thirst and hunger and the like, if they could not experience the feelings which follow after them.
Protarchus
Pro. That seems to be their view.
Socrates
Soc. We should all agree that the opposite of generation is destruction, should we not?
Protarchus
Pro. Inevitably.
Socrates
Soc. And he who chooses as they do would be choosing destruction and generation, not that third life in which there was neither pleasure nor pain, but only the purest possible thought.
