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Duncan Philia in The Gorgias PDF
Duncan Philia in The Gorgias PDF
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23.
"PHILIA"
intheGORGIAS
II
2
This is not the last significant mention of <piXia in the dialogue, but
it terminates any discussion in which Callicles could be said to be a real
participant. We can understand this entire section much better if we distinguish
the plot from the sub-plots. The sub-plots are all the arguments that commen-
tators and philosophers usually focus on, for the most part having to do with
hedonism. What is most significant, however, takes from 481B to 508C to happen.
Callicles has entered a discussion out of friendly feeling; he intends to per-
suade Socrates that the latter 's life-style is all wrong. In the course of
the conversation he cannot sustain his friendly feeling because he is unable to
resist speaking deceptively. Callicles, unlike Gorgias,3 is more interested
in winning than in getting at the truth, although he believes at first, and
probably in the end, that he has the truth. We may say that his enthusiasm
for the truth is subordinate to his interest in recognition. But if his desire
for recognition leads him to speak deceptively, on the gamble that he may carry
off the argument and best Socrates, he must betray cpiXia.
On the theoretical level, Socrates maintains, after we have watched
Callicles go through his changes, that the intemperate man cannot share with
anyone and cannot, therefore, be friends with anyone. This is interesting in
the light of Callicles1 claim that only the "strong man" will be able to give
gifts to his friends and thus, by implication, , to have friends. But it be-
comes even more significant when we realize that Callicles has been coaxed
by Socrates to expose his ideal, his picture of the kind of man he admires and
aspires to be, which picture turns out to be inconsistent with friendship, at
least according to Socrates. At the same time, we have watched the contra-
diction develop in Callicles1 psyche: he wants to be friends with Socrates,
or thinks he does, but he also wants to "overreach" Socrates in the argument.
Notes:
1. e.g. Dodds, E.R. : (Plato: Gorgias, Oxford, 1959) restricts his observations on the role
of phi lia to (1) pointing out the origins of the idea of a cosmic bond, finding a heavily
Pythagorean influence at 507E ff . (p. 337) and (2) remarking that pros Philiou at 500B
has something to do with Callicles' previous professions of friendship (p. 318).
2. Consider 510B ff .
4. Friendlander (Paul, Plato% New York: Bollinger Foundation, 1964, vol. I, p. 26}) recognizes
this. The fact that Callicles "consents to talk with Socrates at all ... indicates a
certain concession on his part," and "Men like Callicles ... would not and should not
do this; for by entering into a discussion, they acknowledge the validity of a law
that must ultimately cause their downfall." But he does not connect his insight ex-
plicitly with philia.
5. Note 482B-C.
6. E.g. 482E-484C.