Gorgias (dialogue)
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| - | '''''Gorgias''''' is an important [[Socratic Dialogue]] in which [[Plato]] sets the [[rhetoric|rhetorician]], whose specialty is persuasion, in opposition to the [[philosopher]], whose specialty is dissuasion, or refutation. The art of persuasion was necessary for political and legal advantage in classical [[Athens]], and rhetoricians promoted themselves as teachers of this fundamental skill. Some, like Gorgias, were foreigners attracted to Athens because of its reputation for int[[Link title]]ellectual and cultural sophistication. | + | '''''Gorgias''''' is an important [[Socratic Dialogue]] in which [[Plato]] sets the [[rhetoric|rhetorician]], whose specialty is persuasion, in opposition to the [[philosopher]], whose specialty is dissuasion, or refutation. The art of persuasion was necessary for political and legal advantage in classical [[Athens]], and rhetoricians promoted themselves as teachers of this fundamental skill. Some, like Gorgias, were foreigners attracted to Athens because of its reputation for [[intellectual]] and cultural sophistication. |
| ==Callicles rants against philosophy== | ==Callicles rants against philosophy== | ||
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Gorgias is an important Socratic Dialogue in which Plato sets the rhetorician, whose specialty is persuasion, in opposition to the philosopher, whose specialty is dissuasion, or refutation. The art of persuasion was necessary for political and legal advantage in classical Athens, and rhetoricians promoted themselves as teachers of this fundamental skill. Some, like Gorgias, were foreigners attracted to Athens because of its reputation for intellectual and cultural sophistication.
Callicles rants against philosophy
Callicles accuses Socrates of carrying on like a demagogue. He argues that suffering wrong is worse than doing it, that there is nothing good about being a victim. He argues (as Glaucon does in the Gyges story in the Republic) that wrongdoing is only by convention shameful, and it is not wrong by nature. Then, he attacks Socrates for wasting time in frivolous philosophy. Callicles goes on an anti-philosophy rant, saying there is no harm in young people engaging in useless banter, but that it is unattractive in older men. He tells Socrates that he is disgraceful, and that if anyone should seize him and carry him off to prison, he would be helpless to defend himself. He says, in a portentous reference to the Apology, that Socrates would reel and gape in front of a jury, and end up being put to death (486a,b). Socrates is not offended by this, and tells Callicles that his extraordinary frankness proves that he is well-disposed towards him (487d).
Callicles then returns to his defense of nature's own justice, where the strong exercise their advantages over the weak. He says that the natural man has large appetites and the means to satisfy them, and that only a weakling praises temperance and justice (483b, 492a-c). Socrates counters that such a man is like a leaky jar, insatiable and unhappy (494a). He returns to his previous position, that an undisciplined man is unhappy and should be restrained and subjected to justice (505b).
