Plato on loving things for the sake of other things

“‘All right then,’ I said. ‘Now that we’ve got as far as this, boys, let’s be careful not to be deceived.’ …

‘Let’s consider the following case: medicine, we say, is a friend for the sake of health.’

‘Yes.’

‘Is health a friend too, then?’

‘Of course.’

‘If it is a friend, it is so for the sake of something.’

‘Yes.’

‘And that something is a friend, if it is to be consistent with what we admitted earlier.’

‘Of course.’

‘And that too, in its turn, will be a friend for the sake of a friend?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well then, aren’t we bound to get tired going on like that and give up, or else arrive at some point of origin which will not refer us to yet another friend, but which will constitute the first thing that is a friend, for the sake of which we say that all the others too are friends?’

‘We are.’ …

“Admittedly, we do often say that we value gold and silver highly, but that hardly comes any nearer the truth. What we value most highly is that thing (whatever it may reveal itself as being) for the sake of which both gold and everything else that is procured are procured. Shall we settle for that?’

‘Of course.’”

(Lysis, 219c-220a)

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