Socrates and Hedonism

Abstract The Protagoras is a puzzling dialogue in many respects, but none more puzzling than the apparent endorsement of hedonism by Socrates in the Final refutation of Protagoras. Since Aristotle clearly takes some of the views expressed by Socrates in this dialogue to be the views of the historical Socrates (notably the denial of akrasia), some scholars have been tempted to see the identification pleasure as the good as in fact a view defended by the historical character Socrates, and not just by Socrates in the dialogue. But most of us Find it difficult to believe that the Socrates we know from the Apology and the Crito—the Socrates who claimed that the only consideration for a good man is whether a proposed action is or is not just—could ever have identified the good with the pleasant.