Description: Daniel Russell develops a fresh and original view of pleasure and its pivotal role in Plato's treatment of value, happiness, and human psychology. This is the first full-length discussion of the topic for fifty years, and Russell shows its relevance to contemporary debates in moral philosophy and philosophical psychology. Plato on Pleasure and the Good Life will make fascinating reading for ancient specialists and for a wide range of philosophers.
Review Quotes: "Many scholars have characterized Plato as having been a hedonist for at least part of his philosophical career. Russell (Monash Univ., Melbourne) disagrees. Those who find hedonism in some of Plato's works, moreover, typically see its opposition in other works as a sign of a later move away from the Socratic influence more evident in Plato's early work. But Russell officially remains neutral on developmentalism generally, on the correct observation that many developmentalists actually share his view that none of Plato's dialogues are rightly construed as committed to hedonism. At any rate, Russell seeks to defend a Unitarian view only with respect to Plato's understanding of the role of pleasure in the good life for human beings. He elaborates and defends this view in seven chapters, followed by a substantial nine-and-a-half-page appendix on the Protagoras."--Choice