In the combination, essential to Good, of Intelligence with Pleasure, Intelligence is the more important of the two constituents.
Hence we see (Sokrates argues) that pleasure is a less important element than Intelligence, in the compound called Good. For pleasure belongs to the Infinite: but pain belongs to the Infinite also: the Infinite therefore, being common to both, cannot be the circumstance which imparts to pleasures their affinity with Good: they must derive that affinity from some one of the other elements.[26] It is Intelligence which imparts to pleasures their affinity with Good: for Intelligence belongs to the more efficacious Genus called Cause. In the combination of Intelligence with Pleasure, indispensable to constitute Good, Intelligence is the primary element, Pleasure only the secondary element. Intelligence or Reason is the ruling cause which pervades and directs both the smaller body called Man, and the greater body called the Kosmos. The body of man consists of a combination of the four elements, Earth, Water, Air, and Fire: deriving its supply of all these elements from the vast stock of them which constitutes the Kosmos. So too the mind of man, with its limited reason and intelligence, is derived from the vast stock of mind, reason, and intelligence, diffused throughout the Kosmos, and governing its great elemental body. The Kosmos is animated and intelligent, having body and mind like man, but in far higher measure and perfection. It is from this source alone that man can derive his supply of mind and intelligence.[27]
[26] Plato, Philêbus, pp. 27-28.
The argument of Plato is here very obscure and difficult to follow. Stallbaum in his note even intimates that Plato uses the word ἄπειρον in a sense different from that in which he had used it before: which I think doubtful.
[27] Plato, Philêbus, p. 29 C. 30 A: Τὸ παρ’ ἡμῖν σῶμα ἆρ’ οὐ ψυχὴν φήσομεν ἔχειν; … Πόθεν λαβόν, εἴπερ μὴ τό γε τοῦ παντὸς σῶμα ἔμψυχον ὂν ἐτύγχανε, ταὐτά γε ἔχον τούτῳ καὶ ἔτι πάντη καλλίονα;
Intelligence is the regulating principle — Pleasure is the Indeterminate, requiring to be regulated.
Sokrates thus arrives at the conclusion, that in the combination constituting Good, Reason or Intelligence is the regulating principle: and that Pleasure is the Infinite or Indeterminate which requires regulation from without, having no fixed measure or regulating power in itself.[28] He now proceeds to investigate pleasure and intelligence as phenomena: to enquire in what each of them resides, and through what affection they are generated.[29]
[28] Plato, Philêbus, p. 31 A.
[29] Plato, Philêbus, p. 31 B. δεῖ δὴ τὸ μετὰ τοῦτο, ἐν ᾧ τέ ἐστιν ἑκάτερον αὐτοῖν καὶ διὰ τί πάθος γίγνεσθον, ὁπόταν γίγνησθον, ἰδεῖν ἡμᾶς.
Pleasure and Pain must be explained together — Pain arises from the disturbance of the fundamental harmony of the system — Pleasure from the restoration.