Philebus

Probably one of Plato's later dialogues (c. 355 BCE), its topic, of considerable importance to Plato, is the nature of the good life, and the conclusions on this subject are supported by a metaphysical excursus and discussions of pleasure and knowledge - the two ingredients of the good life. It is Plato's most deliberate and thorough attempt to describe the good life and may be regarded as the canonical platonic text on the subject of the way men ought to live - a theme which runs through the majority of the other dialogues. It is one of the earliest discussions of ethics - not in the sense of discussing what goodness is, but in the more direct sense of what motivates us and how do we become good. With a wealth of reference to other thinkers and schools of thought the dialogue dismisses hedonism, or the pursuit of pleasure for its own sake, as espoused by Philebus and esablishes the pursuit of knowledge as a higher goal.