• Voegelin on Plato and Aristotle
3/10/2007
Eric Voegelin, Plato and Aristotle, vol. 3 – Order and History
Chap. 2 – The Gorgias
Summary by Joanne Tetlow, J.D., Ph.D.
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Plato is setting the stage for the Republic, the form of the Athenian polis to remedy its decline. In the Gorgias, Socrates
seeks to show the superiority of philosophy over rhetoric in politics. As a true art or techné, philosophy has a rational, explanatory
power aimed at the good not pleasure. Unlike the false art of rhetoric or sophistry which Gorgias is teaching his pupil Polus, political
philosophy seeks knowledge of the good. What emerges quickly in the dialogue is Socrates’s dialectical punch and press on his interlocutors
Gorgias, Polus, and Callicles, who represent the flattery and pleasure-seeking game of rhetorical persuasion. Rhetoric cannot withstand the
dialectical onslaught. In his surgical manner, Socrates, the soul’s physician, exposes the fallacies of the corrupt and vacuous views of Gorgias,
Polus, and Callicles.
As Voegelin points out, the myth of the judgment of the dead is key to understanding the dialogue. It is only from the perspective of death
that life can be understood. It is only from the view of the soul liberated from the body that philosophy can act as a cure for the sick soul
of Athens. The decline of the polis which is posited by Socrates is Plato’s subject in the Republic. The problem with Athenian
politics and its bankrupt ideas is that there is no repentance. By failing to be judged in life, they will die in death. The unwillingness
to suffer injustice rather than do injustice creates an impenetrable barrier in their souls for the healing cure of philosophy whose object is the good
and whose destiny is eternal blessedness. (Concepts familiar to Christianity of divine judgment and heaven and hell are clear in the Platonic
myth)
Both soul and body in this life are stuck, because “appearance” is chosen rather
than reality. Consider the analogies proposed by Socrates to Gorgias:
_______________________________________________________________
Soul
Body
Sick
Health
Sick
Health
sophistry ~~~~~~~ legislation
cosmetic ~~~~~~~ gymnastics
rhetoric ~~~~~~~~ justice
cookery ~~~~~~~ medicine
_______________________________________________________________
Sophistry, cosmetics, and cookery are “knacks.” They seek pleasure not the good; whereas, legislation, justice, medicine, and gymnastics are
techné, because they seek the good of soul and body. It is not an innocuous problem. These sham arts have consequences.
Polus argues that the power and influence of rhetoric over the masses shows its merit. A tyrant is in the best position, because he does want
he wants and has widespread power. Socrates disagrees. The tyrant is actually powerless, because an individual can only “will” the true
good. He may desire pleasure, but he can only will the good, and thus, since the tyrant does not will the good, he has no power and is the most
miserable of creatures.
The enlightened politician Callicles offers the distinction between law and nature, where nature is the will of the stronger, more powerful, and law
is the artificial convention preventing nature from acting out its inherent capacities. To this Socrates shows Callicles that nature seeks the good
and only law which is consonant with that serves such capacities. Hence, the greatest evil is to do evil and fail to be punished. The pathos
of the soul which experiences injustice as Socrates foreshadows for himself is its liberation and life. It is the judgment of the gods as the
measure of justice and the good which allows for purification of the soul.
In sum, the disordered souls of Socrates’s interlocutors are beyond healing, because they prefer rhetoric to philosophy, appearance to reality,
pleasure to the good, death to life. Because they are not ready for death and judgment, they cannot live a moral life. Only spiritual
regeneration can save Athens and its decline. Socrates is the new public authority, because his soul is ordered toward the good and the
transcendent. It has been liberated from the body during life by suffering and so will achieve immortality in the Island of the Blessed at
death. Socrates as representative of the new public order of politics offers a remedy in the myth. The Age of Cronos and most recently
in the Age of Zeus, souls were judged while living; and thus, rhetoric and the false arts and knacks covered the real existential condition of the
soul. Now, however, the Sons of Zeus who are dead will judge the soul at death, having been released from the body, there is no more cover of
earthly existence.
In the Age of Zeus, the individual has reached autonomy through the discovery of reason and philosophy. It is the philosopher who is the true
statesman, not the orator. It is the philosopher who is capable of judging, because it is only the souls who have died to earthly passion that have
a clear view of the good. The corruption of Gorgias, Polus, Callicles, and Athenian politicians is represented by the dead soul which never escapes
the body, never enters into friendship with God, never is willing to endure suffering and live in the presence of judgment of the divine standard.
There is something more important than justice in this life—truth.
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