THE REPUBLIC OF PLATO - Studyplace

INTRODUCTION
impeachment by his enemies, his political existence might depend
on being able to defend himself in a court of law. Reduced to its
simplest terms, rhetoric means the art of persuading a crowd that
a certain course of action is the right one to take, or a certain person
has the right on his side. But where is the assurance that the
persuasive orator knows what is right, what ends are worth achieving
by public policy, or what are the means to individual happiness
Philosophy, to Socrates and Plato, meant precisdy the pursuit
of that wisdom which can assess the true value of all the things
we desire. So the discussion broadens into a survey of the whole
fidd of public life. Gorgias' hot-headed pupil, Polus, claims that
the orator widds the despot's power to do whatever he likes.
Socrates replies that unlimited power without the knowledge of
good and evil is at the best unenviable, and that the tyrant who
uses it to exterminate his enemies and rivals is the most miserable
of men-a theme to be further devdoped in the Repuhlic (chap.
xxxiii). It is bener to suffer wrong than to do it; bener to be chastised
for wrong-doing than to escape punishment by the arts of the
forensic orator.
Polus cannot challenge these paradoxes, because he has not renounced
conventional morality. So at this point Callicles breaks in.
He is not, so far as we know, an historical person; he is the man
of the world, whose view of life is to be set in contrast with the
philosopher's, represented by Socrates. The universal character of
this confrontation is marked where Socrates begs Callicles to be
serious:
'There is no question which a man of any sense could take more
seriously than this which we are now discussing: what course of life
one ought to follow-whether it is to be those manly activities, as you
call them, in which you urge me to take pan, speaking in the Assembly
and engaging in public business like you and your friends, or this
life of mine, spent in the pursuit of wisdom' (500 c).
Callicles opens his case with a vigorous profession of the faith
which underlies the 'manly activities' of the politician. It is substantially
the doctrine of Thrasymachus, a eulogy of 'injustice.' To
get more than one's equal share of the world's advantages is the