Open Secret: A Study of Plato's Philebus

Plato's Philebus, the dialogue on pleasure, knowledge, and the best life for a human being, is peculiar because most of the conversation concerns metaphysical or cosmological matters rather than ethical and political matters having to do with how one should live. This study of the Philebus uses this apparent discrepancy as the way to access the dialogue and ultimately to show that what is at stake in this discrepancy is the emergence of Socratic political philosophy from the "pre-Socratic" study of nature.