Plato and Damascius on Intellectual Pleasures [Spanish]

Authors

  • José Antonio Giménez Salinas Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Keywords:

History of Philosophy, Theory of Pleasure

Abstract

In spite of developing a theory of pleasure that incorporates elements from
subsequent philosophical traditions, Damascius defends, in his Commentary on the Philebus, the Platonic conception of pleasure as a "process of filling". This paper aims to show that Damascius respects not only the letter of the Philebus, but also the spirit of Plato's understanding of the nature of pleasure and, in particular, that of intellectual pleasures. Having assumed the polarity between desire and its satisfaction, Damascius proposes to understand the experience of intellectual pleasure as the experience where desire is fully achieved, so that both the process and the result of knowing produce pleasure. Contrary to what one may initially expect, the exegesis of the Neoplatonic Philosopher allows to highlighting some of Plato's underlying assumptions about the nature of pleasure, namely: the connection between pleasure and the human experience of temporality, and the dependence of pleasure on the structure of desire.

 

Author Biography

José Antonio Giménez Salinas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Dr. Phil. in Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (2014)

Adjunct Professor, Institute of PhilosophyPontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (2015)

Published

2016-03-10

Issue

Section

Articles