Le Skopos du Philèbe

ENThe application of an old notion of Platonic exegetes, that of the skopos of Platonic dialogue, may help to elucidate the course of the discussion proposed by Socrates in the Philebus. This discussion seems to be particularly tortuous and continues to puzzle modern exegetes of the dialogue. If we consider attentively: (a) the parts of the text consecrated to the analysis of pleasure, of intelligence and of the good, (b) the main movements of the dialogue and its structural elements, and (c) certain significant remarks of the persons, we may conclude that, contrary to the opinion of the majority of Neo-Platonic exegetes and of many modern scholars, the main subject-matter and the starting point of Socrates’ examination is the nature of pleasure which is undefined (apeiros), and the aim of the dialogue’s author is to determine the undefined pleasure. This aim is achieved when Socrates announces the place of pleasure in the whole of a well ordained human life. If we consider in this way the main line of the dialogue, we may see that the persons themselves in a way embody the fundamental notions of the discussion: Philebus is an apeiros pleasure, Socrates, intelligence providing measure, and Protarchus, a part of pleasure, that which is experiencing the action of intelligence.