ABSTRACT
Philosophers have had much to say about pleasure and duty. From Plato onwards the distinction has been drawn between desire and reason, between what a man wants to do and what he ought to do. We find in Plato's Republic 1 the suggestion that man is at his best when reason is in control and the conflict is resolved. Yet Plato implied that this happy state would only be reached after a long period of Education. The vast majority of people would at least acknowledge that there is often strong temptation to do what one wants rather than what one ought to do.
