Tommy and the Three Kinds of Good A Childrens' Book © Pleasant Bowen, PHI 110, 2000       Plato's Text        Click thumbnails for full story
Tommy Himself ——————————————————————
Home from School—————————————————————
Good Simply for Its Own Sake————————————————
And for What It Leads To——————————————————
Only for What It Leads To——————————————————
Dreaming—————————————————————————

The Three Kinds of Good: from Republic Bk 2 357b-d
edited and paraphrased from the Jowett public domain translation

Let me ask you now: How would you categorize good things? Are there not some goods that we welcome for their own sakes, and independently of their consequences, as, for example, harmless pleasures and enjoyments, which delight us at the time, although nothing follows from them? -- Yes, I agree in thinking that there are such goods -- And is there not also a second class of goods, such as knowledge, sight, health, which are desirable not only in themselves, but also for their results? -- Certainly, there is that kind too -- And would you not recognize a third class, such as gymnastics, and nursing the sick, and the physician's art, and jobs we do just to earn money? These do us good but we regard them as disagreeable; no one would choose them for their own sakes, but only for the sake of some reward or result which flows from them? -- There is that kind also. But why do you ask? --Because I want to know in which of the three classes you would place justice?

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