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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: the highest degree by dialectic. And do not let us appeal to Gorgias or
Philebus or Socrates, but ask, on behalf of the argument, what are the
highest truths which the soul has the power of attaining. And is not this
the science which has a firmer grasp of them than any other? For the arts
generally are only occupied with matters of opinion, and with the
production and action and passion of this sensible world. But the highest
truth is that which is eternal and unchangeable. And reason and wisdom are
concerned with the eternal; and these are the very claimants, if not for
the first, at least for the second place, whom I propose as rivals to
pleasure.
And now, having the materials, we may proceed to mix them--first
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