Callicles Arguments On What Makes A Person's Life Good

In Plato’s Gorgias, we take into account two arguments that propose an idea on what makes a person’s life good. In Callicles’ point of view, someone who is “superior” is a person who is intelligent and brave. He argues that, “the man who’ll live correctly ought to allow his own appetites to get as large as possible and not restrain them. And they are as large as possible, he ought to be competent to devote himself to them by virtue of his bravery and intelligence, and to fill them with whatever he may have an appetite for at the time” (Plato, 64). In other words, Callicles claims that a person who has a capacity to meet their ever-growing desires lives a good life, this is a life chasing after pleasures. Socrates, on the other hand, states that someone who has self-control, discipline, and an ordered soul is the one living a good life. He questions Callicles on what it means to be superior, this leads to the idea that the superior means assuming ones appetites without limit, which is what causes someone to live a good life. I argue that Socrates is correct. He supports his idea by presenting the arguments on mixed sensations and equal pleasures. I will support his view by showing that this idea is more realistic.
Socrates uses the analogy of the leaky jar to support his own view. Let’s take into account two jars that are each filled with food. Each individual works hard to fill up their jars evenly …show more content…
The reason why Socrates evaluates Callicles’ view of a happy life as “strange” is because the idea that people cultivate and satisfy their appetites without restraint is seen as a defective soul. A good soul possesses harmony and organization in every aspect. This same concept ties in with the acts of doing bad and good. A person that is robbing a bank can feel pleasure from all the money they are obtaining but this doesn’t make the act good itself. They are doing something bad, but feeling pleasure about doing