Insight of Plato's Gorgias
Textual Analysis Term Paper: Gorgias
As history suggests, Plato was Socrates’ prime student. Plato’s key belief was that
the ultimate reality was the notion and concepts of things. His deduction was that what
we see in the physical world are simply abstract representations of universal ideas.
Consequently, Plato supposed, that to correctly understand reality one must transcend the
physical reality into the world of ideas, which is seen in Plato’s “Gorgias.” A lot of the
dialects in this piece of work are full of Socratic irony. Plato 's main idea of the true
nature of reality centers on the abstract perception of universals and what creates the physical
reality. As Platonic Realism proposes, to be able to sensually perceive these universals, as they
have no temporal traits is impossible. In “Gorgias” we are able to see through Socrates’ and
Callicles’ dispute about justice, the ideas that form the foundation about what consists to be a
successful political leader.
Plato recognizes the conventional meaning of pleasure as satisfaction, but to understand
his view of the moral dimension behind it there is a particular framework behind the concept of
beauty. In “Gorgias”, he has Socrates say that things, both concrete things such as bodies, and
abstract things such as laws, and even knowledge, are beautiful “on account of either some
pleasure or benefit, or both.” (Plato, p.72)
In the beginning of the discussion between Socrates and Callicles itself, Socrates
mentions that the basis of their arguments will be with what they both love: philosophy &
Athenian democracy. To understand Socrates’ arguments it is foremost important to notice that
he directs his arguments towards the pursuit of pleasure, as he implies it is the highest good of
human life.
The difference between Callicles and Socrates on pleasure and the good is that
Callicles thinks the structures of the pleasures one pursues or the pains one avoids
As history suggests, Plato was Socrates’ prime student. Plato’s key belief was that
the ultimate reality was the notion and concepts of things. His deduction was that what
we see in the physical world are simply abstract representations of universal ideas.
Consequently, Plato supposed, that to correctly understand reality one must transcend the
physical reality into the world of ideas, which is seen in Plato’s “Gorgias.” A lot of the
dialects in this piece of work are full of Socratic irony. Plato 's main idea of the true
nature of reality centers on the abstract perception of universals and what creates the physical
reality. As Platonic Realism proposes, to be able to sensually perceive these universals, as they
have no temporal traits is impossible. In “Gorgias” we are able to see through Socrates’ and
Callicles’ dispute about justice, the ideas that form the foundation about what consists to be a
successful political leader.
Plato recognizes the conventional meaning of pleasure as satisfaction, but to understand
his view of the moral dimension behind it there is a particular framework behind the concept of
beauty. In “Gorgias”, he has Socrates say that things, both concrete things such as bodies, and
abstract things such as laws, and even knowledge, are beautiful “on account of either some
pleasure or benefit, or both.” (Plato, p.72)
In the beginning of the discussion between Socrates and Callicles itself, Socrates
mentions that the basis of their arguments will be with what they both love: philosophy &
Athenian democracy. To understand Socrates’ arguments it is foremost important to notice that
he directs his arguments towards the pursuit of pleasure, as he implies it is the highest good of
human life.
The difference between Callicles and Socrates on pleasure and the good is that
Callicles thinks the structures of the pleasures one pursues or the pains one avoids
Bibliography: Plato, Gorgias. (Newburyport: R. Pullins Company, 2007), 23-171. Sophocles, Antigone. (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2007), 52-116.