Gorgias: A Detailed Study Of Virtue

1. The Four Texts On Socrates by Plato and Aristophanes looks at Plato’s works, Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito. Plato’s works fall under the genre of philosophical dialogue presented in a context similar to that of dramatic monologues. Although Plato’s works are based in historical context, the works are less historical fiction, and more of a dramatic tragedy or comedy.

Socrates is believed to be one of the greatest philosophers of all time and he is credited as being the founder of western philosophy. This paper will explain some of his views to the most fundamental questions of today’s age. These questions will include topics about morality, the human condition, solution, and death. After Socrates’ views on these topics are explained, a critique will be done on his answers. I will start out by explaining exactly who Socrates is, and the time that he lived in. To start out, we will first examine Socrates’ view on morality.

According to Socrates one of the most important things that identify with human being is their desire. Socrates argues that desire that can change people minds quickly and very abnormally. The three-part division of the soul is crucial to Plato’s overall project of offering the same sort of explication of justice whether applied to societies or individuals.

Gorgias’ Encomium of Helen is a beautiful, short, though enigmatic, speech that demonstrates sophist, Gorgias’ mastery of the art of rhetoric. In this speech, Gorgias attempts to accomplish two important tasks. One, by presenting a reasoned argument to his audiences, Gorgias tries to lift the blame off of Helen for causing the Trojan War. Two, by demonstrating his mastery of the art of rhetoric, Gorgias attempts to attract future consumers of his teaching of the art of rhetoric. This might also be very likely given that Gorgias is a sophist that traveled from one city to another looking for students that will purchase his ability to teach them rhetoric. Sophists were needed in Greek cities as they provided education in public speaking, a

Many second generation minorities from immigrant parents are driven subconsciously to conform to new culture and social norms. For foreign born parents and native born children integrating the two cultures they inhabit brings about different obstacles and experiences. In Jhumpa’s “The Namesake” the protagonist Gogol is a native born American with foreign born parents. The difference with birth location plays an important role in assimilating to a new society in a new geography. The difficulty for parents is the fact that they’ve spent a decent amount of time accustomed to a new geography, language, culture and society which makes it difficult to feel comfortable when all of that changes. For Gogol the difficulty only lies with the cultural norms imposed by his parent’s and the culture and social norms that are constantly presented in the new society.

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.

In Gorgias we have a conversation between Socrates, Gorgias, and Polus, Gorgias' young assistant. They speak on the matters of rhetoric, knowledge, and whether injustice and suffering is better to do or have done onto you. While conventional wisdom tells us that it is better to inflict suffering than to receive it, Socrates argues that it is completely the opposite. Part of Socrates view is that moral goodness is connected with knowledge, and that morally it is better to receive suffering than inflict it.

In this paper I will be discussing the tripartite (three parts) of the soul that Socrates discussed in chapter 6 of Plato’s Republic, and I will compare and contrast them to that of Aristotle and Anthony Kenny. In Plato’s Republic the three parts of the soul consist of the rational, spirited and, desire. In this dialogue the three parts of the soul go hand and hand with three parts of a just society.

Though defeated on this point, he's not yet satisfied with Socrates' argument, and sticks by one of his previously stated views which held that injustice is more profitable than justice. However, he shrinks back and seems no longer able to speak for himself after Socrates refuted his argument on justice. Despite his withdrawal from the argument throughout the rest of the Republic, his early ideas help lead Socrates farther on his search for justice through the construction of a hypothetical just city. In describing the education of the guardians of this city, Socrates discusses the need for a balance between gymnastics and poetry. He relates how too much gymnastics lead the spirited part of someone to be overtightened and hard. "He'll be museless and hate discussion" explains Socrates. This hardness and hate for discussion reminds us of the actions of Thrasymachus at the beginning of the argument defining justice. Thrasymachus becomes an example of a "badly tuned soul" that Socrates goes on to describe.

In the Republic of Plato, the philosopher Socrates lays out his notion of the good, and draws the conclusion that virtue must be attained before one can be good. For Socrates there are two kinds of virtue; collective and individual. Collective virtue is virtue as whole, or the virtues of the city. Individual virtue pertains to the individual himself, and concerns the acts that the individual does, and concerns the individual’s soul. For Socrates, the relationship between individual and collective virtue is that they are the same, as the virtues of the collective parallel those of the Individual. This conclusion can be reached as both the city and the soul deal with the four main virtues of wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice.

Ultimately, Socrates' whole life had been a service to the City begun out of a pious response to the saying of the gods. This is the deeper refutation of the charges. It is also another positive image of Socrates: He IS a gadfly.

From this, Socrates applies the idea of functions and virtues to the soul. The soul has a function so it equally has a virtue. Socrates states that the function of the soul is “taking care of things, ruling, deliberating, and the like… (353d).” He also says that living is the function of the soul. The virtue of the soul allows it to perform these functions well and deprived of it, badly. Likewise, a bad soul rules and takes care of things badly while a good one does not (353e). The virtue of the soul is justice. Therefore, if something performs its function well by means of its virtue, then the soul will perform living and the other functions, such as taking care of things, well through justice. The

That character is inevitably seen against the background of his trial and death. In 399 B.C. Socrates was charged with heresy and accused of leading youths astray. Plato reacted to this in the Euthyphro, “a very serious charge, which shows a good deal of character in the young man, and for which he is certainly not to be despised. He says he knows how the youth are corrupted and who are their corruptors… Of all our political men he is the only one who seems to me to begin in the right way, with the cultivation of virtue in youth; like a good husbandman, he makes the young shoots his first care, and clears away us who are the destroyers of them.” (McInerny pg.3) In this way, Plato is highlighting the importance of virtue for Socrates. This, too, is evident is one of Plato’s dialogues titled “the Apology,” where Plato presents us with Socrates at the trial, answering to his accusers. “The Apology” is obviously a piece of literature but it is one in which Socrates’ true self can be seen as he refuses to use a methodically written speech, prepared by a professional rhetorician which was typical in the courtroom, in his

Socrates criticizes the poet’s speech claiming that it does not have a single purpose other than to entertain, which is not sufficient enough. Socrates concerns himself with corrupt education and wants to ensure that he and the city does everything capable to produce well rounded, fine thinking men. Though he may reject the poet’s use of literary speech, Socrates develops his own type of literary speech to use. He reckons that his own literary speech be used instead since it would be more meaningful and creates three myths, distinguishing why they are crucial components for the education of the people.

Socrates tries, but fails, to convince Callicles that he knows of Callicles’ beliefs better than Callicles seem to know himself. Subsequently, Callicles, rejects Socrates outlook vehemently, and refuses to yield to the works of Socratic logic. Instead, Callicles spent a good portion of the dialogue simply chastising Socrates and his immersion in the search of philosophy (484c). According to Callicles, a grown man should not engross himself in such a pursuit for it is, apparently, disgraceful, unsophisticated, and childlike. Throughout the discussion, Socrates equips the audience with an abstract logical proof of the distinction between the good and the pleasant, despite Callicles persistence that pleasure and good are identical (494a-495a). The remainder of the text concludes with Socrates attempt to reveal an apposite balance of the virtues and their materialization into a righteous life (495d-496e). He describes the virtue of the body as well the soul through aerobics and medicine, as well as through abstinence and righteousness respectively (497c-498a). At the dialogue’s conclusion, Socrates speaks of his fear – not of death, but of facing judgment with a corrupt soul (522e). According to Socrates, a corrupt soul can be alleviated through punishment in Hades but the best chance of having an untainted soul and evading said punishment is through the impassive and isolated life of philosophy that he himself leads