Philebus
Plato (428–347 BC)
Plato's Philebus in the Greek text edited by John Burnet, with Harold North Fowler's English translation.
Section 11
Section 12
Section 13
Section 14
Section 15
Section 16
Section 17
Section 18
Section 19
Section 20
Section 21
Section 22
Section 23
Section 24
Section 25
Section 26
Section 27
Section 28
Section 29
Section 30
Section 31
Section 32
Section 33
Section 34
Section 35
Section 36
Section 37
Section 38
Section 39
Soc. Memory unites with the senses, and they and the feelings which are connected with them seem to me almost to write words in our souls; and when the feeling in question writes the truth, true opinions and true statements are produced in us; but when the writer within us writes falsehoods, the resulting opinions and statements are the opposite of true.
Pro. That is my view completely, and I accept it as stated.
Soc. Then accept also the presence of another workman in our souls at such a time.
Pro. What workman?
Soc. A painter, who paints in our souls pictures to illustrate the words which the writer has written.
Pro. But how do we say he does this, and when?
Soc. When a man receives from sight or some other sense the opinions and utterances of the moment and afterwards beholds in his own mind the images of those opinions and utterances. That happens to us often enough, does it not?
Pro. It certainly does.
Soc. And the images of the true opinions are true, and those of the false are false?
Pro. Assuredly.
Soc. Then if we are right about that, let us consider a further question.
Pro. What is it?
Soc. Whether this is an inevitable experience in relation to the present and the past, but not in relation to the future.
Pro. It is in the same relation to all kinds of time.
Soc. Was it not said a while ago that the pleasures and pains which belong to the soul alone might come before the pleasures and pains of the body, so that we have the pleasure and pain of anticipation, which relate to the future?
Pro. Very true.
Soc. Do the writings and pictures, then, which we imagined a little while ago to exist within us, relate to the past and present, but not to the future?
Pro. To the future especially.
Soc. Do you say to the future especially because they are all hopes relating to the future and we are always filled with hopes all our lives?
Pro. Precisely.
Soc. Well, here is a further question for you to answer.
Pro. What is it?
Soc. A just, pious, and good man is surely a friend of the gods, is he not?
Pro. Certainly.