Pleasure and Pain: Plato vs. the Bible
Plato's work, Phaedo, begins with Socrates, having been released from prison by the Eleven, the prison guard from the Athenian criminal court. The Eleven are responsible for making sure Socrates will drink poison and commit suicide. Socrates is sitting on a bed, reflecting on how ‘pleasant’ it is now to be able to rub his leg freed from its chains, that which was ‘painful’. He is amused as he thinks about the strange relationship between ‘the pleasant’ and ‘the painful’. On
