Aylin Yüken

PHIL451- Selected Topics in Philosophy

Final Essay
Damien Storey
13.01.2021

The Satisfaction of Desires on Gorgias

In order to investigate human nature, Socrates asks crucial questions: What is the good
and what is the bad? Should people satisfy their desires as strong as possible to reach a happy
life? What makes people truly happy? Is satisfaction of all desires always a good thing? In
Gorgias, Socrates argues about the satisfaction of desires with Callicles. They have different
views of the good. Callicles defends that the satisfaction of desires is good, it brings people
pleasure and pleasure is always good. His objects of desire are physical appetites such as
hunger, thirst and lust. These can be satisfied with activity of eating and drinking. Having
what you want seems very good, according to this perspective, the person who have what he
pursues seems happy because he has got everything what he believes good. However, there is
a mistake for Socrates. The satisfaction of all desires is not good, it does not bring happiness
because the pleasure is not identical to the good. His objects of desire are different from
Callicles, those are achievable goods, when people achieve these goods, the pleasure which
comes from them does not disappear. Having pleasure still remains even if time passes. So,
Callicles’ assumption of pleasure is good makes him failure. According to Socrates, Callicles
cannot distinguish bad pleasures and good pleasures. In this essay, in the first part, I will
address Callicles’ hedonistic view about the satisfaction of all desires. In the second part, I
will examine what are the bad pleasures and the good pleasures because Callicles cannot
distinguish them, and I will show that how Callicles’s rational desire view deceives him. In
the third part, I will mention about the Allegory of Leaky Jar because Socrates clearly shows
the importance of restraint of desires in that allegory. In the last part, I will draw a general
conclusion.
In the first part, I will address Callicles’ hedonistic view of satisfaction of all desires.
First, Callicles has an extremely hedonistic view. He thinks that everyone should satisfy their
desires as large as possible. Because the satisfaction of desires gives pleasure (494a). This

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pleasure is good, so people should satisfy their desires. And if people satisfy their appetites,
they can be strong and happy in nature. If a person restricts their desires, he cannot be happy
and strong. So, Callicles rejects the restraint of desires. He explains this that “How could a
man prove to be happy if he’s enslaved to anyone at all? Rather, this is what’s admirable and
just by nature—and I’ll say it to you now with all frankness—that the man who’ll live
correctly ought to allow his own appetites to get as large as possible and not restrain them”
(491e - 492a). He means that if someone is a slave to anyone else including himself, he cannot
be happy. So, they should satisfy their desires because according to Callicles’ assumption, the
happiest life means the satisfaction of all desires. If they satisfy their desires, they can be
happier and stronger. Then, Socrates asks to Callicles: “And thirst and drinking when one is
thirsty?” then Callicles responds him that “Yes, and also having all other appetites and being
able to fill them and enjoy it, and so live happily” (494c). If people satisfy their desires, they
will have a happy and enjoyable life. In other words, the satisfaction of all desires and having
large appetites is necessary for the enjoyable and happy life. There is a distinction between
Socrates and Callicles’ views of the good. Their objects of desires are different from each
other. Callicles’ objects of desire are physical pleasures such as hunger, thirst, and lust. He
believes that physical pleasures are enough to have a happy life. For him, when someone
desires to eat, he should eat, if he is thirsty, he should drink as large as possible. The hunger,
thirst and lust can be satisfied by activities of eating and drinking. These physical pleasures
are consumable, I mean that people always desire them, and when they satisfy their desires,
the pleasure disappears, people consume their objects of desire as large as possible. In that
sense, Socrates asks to Callicles “And doesn’t he stop having pleasures at the same time as he
stops being hungry or stops having the other appetites?” (497c). And then, Callicles approves
him. In other words, when people reach what they want, the pleasure does not remain, so they
always continue to want to satisfy their physical pleasures. This process is always repeated.
On the other hand, Socrates’ objects of desire are non-consumable, they are achievable. When
people satisfy their desires, they achieve them, they do not lose the pleasure which they
achieved, even if time passes. For example, one desires to learn a new language, to be brave,
or to gain a new skill and when one reaches these desires, the abilities or the features, they do
not disappear. They still give pleasure people, so they are non-consumable. So, Callicles’
view of the good is different from Socrates, and Callicles is hedonistic.
Secondly, in this part, I will explain the distinction between the good pleasures and the bad
pleasures because Callicles cannot distinguish them according to Socrates, he does not make
any distinction between pleasures. He believes that the good is pleasure, and the satisfaction
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of desires brings pleasure, and this pleasure is good because people feel happy when they
satisfy their desires. Callicles believes one should satisfy all appetites because he believes that
the pleasure and the good identical (495a-6), and the satisfaction of an appetite is pleasure.
So, he cannot distinguish the bad pleasures and the good pleasures. People desire something
pleasurable because pleasant things seem good in a deceptive way. They also avoid pain
because it seems bad. The pleasant things appear people good, they think that this is good, so
they think that they can do it because they naturally desire what is good. People make
mistakes because they have false beliefs about what is good and what is bad. All pleasant
things appear as a good thing. Similarly, Callicles believes that all pleasant things pleasurable,
then, pleasure is good, and people should reach the good and satisfy their desires. So, his false
beliefs actually indicate that he has rational desires, but actually they are not good in the long
run. For example, eating hamburger is pleasant, because we are hungry and it appears so
delicious, and why do we don’t eat it? Because something appears good, but it is not good in
the long run. It can lead to obesity, so it brings more pain in the long run. According to this
perspective, if some consequences of activities lead to more pain than pleasure, it is a bad
pleasure. And if some results of activities lead to more pleasure than pain, it is a good
pleasure. Socrates asks Callicles “Now, do you mean pleasures like the ones we were just now
mentioning in connection with the body, those of eating and drinking? Do some of these
produce health in the body, or strength, or some other bodily excellence, and are these
pleasures are good, while those that produce the opposites of these things are bad?” (499d4
-e1) and Callicles approves Socrates. In the long run, something is more pleasurable, it is
good; if it is not, then, it is bad. But for Callicles, all pleasant things are good, and all
pleasures are good; he does not make any distinction between them, for this reason he makes
a mistake. Socrates wants to persuade Callicles that some pleasures are bad, and the pleasant
and the good are not identical. If pleasure is good, then satisfying desires would be a better
state, but the satisfaction of physical desires does not carry people in a better state. In this
state, there is not any enjoyment or happiness. So, after satisfying a desire, people need to
satisfy other desires constantly. So, Callicles’s good is consumable, people consume them,
and they always need to satisfy other desires again and again. They think that satisfying is a
good thing, it always gives pleasure, but actually these people never will be happy. But for
Socrates, the situation is not like that. His objects of desire are non-consumable. When people
satisfy their desires, they still have enjoyment and happiness. These good pleasures always
bring people to a good state. So, for Socrates people should evaluate the results of their
actions, if they bring more pain then pleasure, they should stop to desire it because anyone
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does not want to have the bad and to be unhappy willingly. If people know that some
pleasures are bad and avoid them knowingly, they will always reach the actual good and they
will be happier. So, it is too significant to know that all pleasures are not good, it plays a
central role in our lives.
In this third part, I am mentioning about the Allegory of Leaky Jar. Socrates gives this
example in Gorgias, because he wants to show that a temperate and self-controlled life is
always better than a physically pleasurable life. Callicles rejects the restraint of desires, but
Socrates wants to persuade him why people should restrict their desires according to the
Allegory of Leaky Jar. First, Socrates gives us an allegorical example of the soul. This soul
seems a leaky jar and it represents two things: the first one is a jar, it shows the part of the
soul in which the desires are located and the second one is a sieve, it symbolizes the soul of
unthinking and insatiable people. Socrates claims that “…that part of the souls of fools where
their appetites are located is their undisciplined part, one not tightly closed, a leaking jar, as it
were. He based the image on its insatiability” (493b). These unthinking and insatiable
people’s souls seem a leaky jar, they cannot keep anything in it, they always need to keep the
jar full. The leakiness shows that these unthinking and insatiable people have a leaky soul
because they always want to satisfy their desires without thinking consequences. As Callicles
does, he believes that people should let their desires as large as possible regardless of
consequences. He does not think that some pleasures are bad, and they lead to more pain than
pleasure. For these people, the satisfaction of desires is never enough, so they constantly want
to satisfy their desires more and more. These unthinking and insatiable people want to keep
their jars full because they believe that satisfaction of their appetites gives pleasure, and this
pleasure is identical to good. If they do not replenish their jars constantly, they believe that
they cannot be happy and strong. Why do these people have insatiable souls? Because they
are undisciplined and uncontrolled people, so they do not restrict their desires. Socrates wants
to persuade Callicles that the undisciplined and insatiable people cannot be happy, and they
will never satisfy their desires because they cannot retain anything in their souls, everything
flows like the water which in the leaky jar. Nevertheless, Callicles does not be convinced and
he wants to have a leaky jar. Callicles asserts that “The man who has filled himself up has no
pleasure anymore, and when he’s been filled up and experiences neither joy nor pain, that’s
living like a stone, as I was saying just now. Rather, living pleasantly consists in this: having
as much as possible flow in” (494b). For Callicles, if people replenish their jars, they still
cannot be happy, a happy life depends on satisfaction of appetites as large as possible. People
should satisfy their desires constantly because the pleasure is good, and it comes from the
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satisfaction of appetites. However, Socrates emphasizes that a self-disciplined and satiable life
is always better than just insatiable life. The physically pleasurable life does not give us
pleasure in the long run. So, Callicles’ objects of desires consumable, everything flows in,
people cannot retain anything because their souls are leaky. The foolish people always
demand to satisfy appetites, but this process will never be completed, and they never will
achieve their objects of appetites. In the long run, they will have more pain because they
never will satisfy their desires. Hence, Socrates shows the importance of disciplined life and
he suggests that people always think about the consequences of their actions, if they give
more pain than pleasure, they should stop to desire them, so the orderly and satiable life is
always better than physically pleasurable life.
To sum up, Socrates demonstrates that the pleasure is not the good. There are good
pleasures and bad pleasures. Something seems pleasant does not always indicate a good thing,
it just appears good. It might bring more pain in the long run. So, if people want to satisfy
their desires without thinking the consequences critically, they cannot be happy. In Gorgias,
Callicles has an extremely hedonistic view, he believes that people should satisfy their desires
as large as possible because there is pleasure in it and the pleasure is always good. In that
point, Socrates gives us a representational allegory of leaky jar. For Socrates, the soul of
insatiable and unthinking people is leaky, they cannot retain anything in their souls, so they
can never be happy and satisfied. Thus, people should restrict their desires and think about
consequences of their actions because this life is always better than insatiable life. I believe
that Socrates asked crucial questions about human existence and psychology, he examined the
causes of human behaviors. I also believe that the pleasure and the restraint of it are important
topics for psychology and philosophy because they are still argued by many people today, and
it will continue.

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Works cited:
Cooper, John M., ed. 1997. Plato, Complete Works. With Douglas S. Hutchinson.

Indianapolis.