Callicles' Philosophy: Power, Pleasure, and Natural Law

Callicles' Perspective

• It is better to inflict wrong than to suffer it.
• The ideal life is defined by pleasure and self-indulgence (hedonistic).
• The best and happiest state of existence is achieved through sensual, self-indulgent freedom.
• Suffering is worse than not suffering, making it more contemptible to suffer than to inflict suffering.
• His views align with natural law, where superior animals dominate weaker ones.
• There should be nothing to hinder or restrain expanding personal pleasures.
• Societal convention warps the natural order, leading to the false belief that equality and justice are good.
• Rules are formed by the weak to suppress the superior.
• Achieved circumstances or status are deserved as one's rightful place.
• Might makes right and survival of the fittest are the core tenets.
• Contentment equates to the life of a stone or corpse, which is to numb oneself and rid oneself of opportunity.
• Pleasure is intrinsically good and requires no further justification.

Socrates' Perspective

• It is better to suffer wrong than to inflict it.
• The good/ideal life avoids pleasure and seeks order and self-discipline.
• A wrongdoer becomes unjust and morally corrupt, which is a greater evil than physical suffering.
• Inflicting harm is unjust and morally corrupt.
• Injustice harms the soul.
• It is better to avoid harm to the soul than to avoid external suffering.
• Suffering and adversity can improve life and character.
• Life should involve self-discipline, which is preferable to hedonism.
• Superior individuals should be masters of themselves, not slaves to their desires.
• A slave to desire lacks self-control and is ruled by their appetites, not reason.
• A person who indulges every desire without restraint becomes enslaved to those desires.
• An undisciplined person is like a leaky jar that can never be satisfied.
• Virtuous people achieve a stable and fulfilling life through self-restraint.
• People should seek to suppress desires rather than seeking pleasure.
• A mind devoted to pleasure is like a leaky jar that constantly requires filling; it is better to ensure the jar isn’t leaky in the first place.
• A life of pleasure is like a life of constantly having an itch that needs to be scratched.

Callicles believed inflicting wrong is better than suffering it. He equates the ideal life to unrestrained pleasure and self-indulgence, as societal conventions distort the natural order where the strong dominate the weak. To Callicles, might makes right.