1 passages · search this phrase →
Often appears with: will, choice, and freedom · relief from pain · reason and the intellect · pleasure, pain, and the good life · pleasure and pain · neutral state of rest · anticipation of pleasure and pain
Usually: argument (1) · detachment (1)
Socrates rejects the idea that pleasure is simply the absence of pain, distinguishes neutral “rest” from real pleasure, and illustrates it with examples like health, illness relief, smell, and anticipations of future pains and pleasures.
True. And there is a neutral state which is neither pleasure nor pain? There is. A state which is intermediate, and a sort of repose of the soul about either—that is what you mean? Yes. You remember what people say when they are sick? What do they say? That after all nothing is pleasanter than health. But then they never knew this to be the greatest of pleasures until they were ill. Yes, I know, he said. And…