Callicles
Question Selection: Write an essay on Callicles’ views, as espoused in Plato’s "Gorgias". Explain what these views are; explain how Socrates tries to counter them; and give your own assessment of the dialogue between the two.
With reference to Plato’s work entitled Gorgias, this essay will provide a short background to the dialogue, provide a synopsis of the points put forward by Callicles and how Socrates refutes those claims, ending with a final assessment of the dialogue in completion. ‘War and Battle’ are the opening words of the Gorgias. Voegelin believes this to be a battle for the soul of the younger generation. ‘Who will form the future leaders of the polity: the rhetor who teaches the tricks of political success, or the philosopher who creates the substance in soul and society?’1 Although the dialogue opens with a discussion on the art of oratory the true concern of the Gorgias is with ethics. Plato saw this new-fangled art as a breeding ground for all that was corrupt and false in life.2 Therefore as Taylor describes it ‘the true object of this work…is to pit a typical life of devotion to the supra-personal good against the typical theory and practice of the “will to power”’.3 The Gorgias is split into 3 phases each with its main character (as counterpart to Socrates). With each phase the arguments become increasingly vehement in tone as the issues at stake become more fundamental. The dialogue culminates in a defence by Socrates of his philosophic way of life as a response to Callicles request to abandon it and turn to politics. The contest between philosophy and politics is approached through a series of themes: justice, moderation and hedonism4 and it is the 3rd and longer part of the work that I will focus on, the dialogue with Callicles.
Unlike Polus, Callicles does not agree that doing what is unjust is more shameful than doing what is just. He claims Polus was forced into contradiction due to Greek custom. Callicles presents a fully
With reference to Plato’s work entitled Gorgias, this essay will provide a short background to the dialogue, provide a synopsis of the points put forward by Callicles and how Socrates refutes those claims, ending with a final assessment of the dialogue in completion. ‘War and Battle’ are the opening words of the Gorgias. Voegelin believes this to be a battle for the soul of the younger generation. ‘Who will form the future leaders of the polity: the rhetor who teaches the tricks of political success, or the philosopher who creates the substance in soul and society?’1 Although the dialogue opens with a discussion on the art of oratory the true concern of the Gorgias is with ethics. Plato saw this new-fangled art as a breeding ground for all that was corrupt and false in life.2 Therefore as Taylor describes it ‘the true object of this work…is to pit a typical life of devotion to the supra-personal good against the typical theory and practice of the “will to power”’.3 The Gorgias is split into 3 phases each with its main character (as counterpart to Socrates). With each phase the arguments become increasingly vehement in tone as the issues at stake become more fundamental. The dialogue culminates in a defence by Socrates of his philosophic way of life as a response to Callicles request to abandon it and turn to politics. The contest between philosophy and politics is approached through a series of themes: justice, moderation and hedonism4 and it is the 3rd and longer part of the work that I will focus on, the dialogue with Callicles.
Unlike Polus, Callicles does not agree that doing what is unjust is more shameful than doing what is just. He claims Polus was forced into contradiction due to Greek custom. Callicles presents a fully
Bibliography: Barker, Ernest, Greek Political Theory: Plato and His Predecessors (London: Methuen, 1969. Hamilton, Walter, Plato: Gorgias, (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971). Klosko, George, ‘The Refutation of Callicles in Plato 's “Gorgias”’, Greece & Rome, Second Series, Vol 31, Issue 2 (UK: The Classical Association, 1984), pp. 126-139. Leask, Ian Albert, Questions of Platonism (London: Greenwich Exchange, 2000). Shorey, Paul, What Plato Said (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968). Stauffer, Devin, ‘A reading of Plato’s “Gorgias”’, The Review of Politics, Vol. 64, No.4 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 627 – 657. Taylor, Alfred Edward, Plato, the man and his work, (London: Methuen, 1969). Urstad, Kristian, The Question of Temperance and Hedonism in Callicles (Leeds: Leeds International Classical Studies, 2011). Voegelin, Eric, Plato (MO: University of Missouri Press, 1957).