The dialogue Philebus is not one of the best known or oft interpreted in the Platonic canon. Maybe that's for the best. It would surely cause some confusion for undergraduates, not least because the titular character, "Philebus," has very little to say in it. The discussion is chiefy between Socrates and a student of the sophists named Protarchus. So why isn't it called the Protarchus ? I accept my ignorance. The central issue, at least in terms of narrative structure, is the value of a hedonistic life versus that of a life spent in pursuit of wisdom. Spoiler alert: the conclusion is that the ideal life includes components of both, but that the life spent in pursuit of wisdom at the expense of pleasure gets "second prize." In the course of this, there are lengthy digressions, as it seems, about cosmology and such. As is often the case with Plato's dialogues, the digressions contain the real philosophical meat. What is perhaps best remembered a...