Callicles’ Ultimate Goal: The Fulfillment of All Human Desires Essay

Each and every psyche has his ingest appraisal of what the reliable life is. For some, it is simply having enough of the basic necessities of life such as food and clo involvement to sustain themselves for everyday life. For others, it brush off be the acquirement of more than riches and wealth. Others see the good life as living as wise, good, or moral men. In spite having these unlike ideas of what the good life is, it remains true for tot eithery people that in order to live this, they essential be able to fulfill every their needs and desires. In other words, they need to find contentment.A person rear say he lives the good life when he has everything he destinys non just in a material sense, entirely too in the mental, emotional and spiritual senses. When all these atomic number 18 satisfied, the eventual(prenominal) destruction of happiness (which is basically the good life it self) is reached. In Platos Gorgias, the good life and the concepts of desire and ha ppiness atomic number 18 discussed by the characters of Socrates and Callicles. As Callicles discusses in the following passage, he reveals his idea about how the full expression of desires is the net destination of the good life Hu objet dart happiness is incompatible with imprisonment to anyone.What nature approves and sanctions, on the other handIm dismissal to s rush bluntly to you now-is this the only authentic way of life is to do nothing to hinder or restrain the expansion of ones desires, until they screwing become no larger, at which point one should be capable of lay courage and cleverness at their service and satisfying every ephemeral whim. Now, I dont think most people can do this, and thats why they condemn those who can theyre ashamed, and they interpret to disguise their snap offings by claiming that self indulgence is contemptible, which, as I explained earlier, is an exertion to enslave those who argon better than them.And why do they praise self discip line and justice? Be curtilage their own timidity makes them incapable of winning bliss for their pleasures The first part of his statement discusses how publics goal must everlastingly be his happiness. His desires can never be suppressed, that his focus must always be on his main goal, which is to achieve everything he has case-hardened his heart upon having. When the time comes that he reaches this pointthe maximum levelthose that he desires after (though not necessarily all) will be easier to acquire. The phrase expiry whims are like short-term goals.When one has achieved the ultimate or long goal, it come alongs that the short-term ones become much easier to achieve. However, Callicles believes that not all people are capable of achieving their ultimate goals. The force themselves to make to with their short-term ones, besides fulfilling these never seem to be enough, which is why they condemn those who can. People who snap to reach their goals say that putting forwar d ones own pleasures and gratifications is contemptible. They pretend that they do not need to fulfill their own desires because it is kind of unacceptable behavior.It is selfish and unpleasant to place oneself as the first priority. just deep down, there is resentment about his failures. He puts on a show that he is virtuous and unselfishanother way, in truth, of enjoyable oneself. This becomes a way of attempting to enslave those who are better than them. Because they make it seem like they are the virtuous ones, they make the successful men heart like the self-seeking ones. They condemn the achievers to reputations of being self-indulgent and unworthy of complaisance or power because they chose to put themselves first, above all else.Secretly deficiency to in the achievers position, the failed men try to bring through themselves and their prides by making themselves come forth virtuous. They make it seem that they did not reach their mains goals not because of deficiencie s or weaknesses, exactly rather because they have self-discipline and believe in equality amongst all men that no one should rise above the others, that they remained equal and that they cherished to be fair to all. They force to turn their weaknesses and shortcomings into acts of nobility.If they cannot achieve their main goals, they prefer to find satisfaction elsewhere, even if their mean are not of the serious way. This way of thinking becomes the explanation for why self-discipline becomes the goal of those who cant have what they really desire. Self-discipline, firstly, as mentioned earlier, is a means of redeem oneself. This is the failures way of getting satisfaction. Even though it is not as pleasurable a feeling as achieving ones ultimate goal, they revivify for it by getting to experience parts of it.Secondly, self-discipline is a means of chastenessling oneself to not desire any other things, or at least things that are difficult to attain. Their continuous disa ppointments spur them to set true-to-life(prenominal) goals for themselvesgoals that match their capabilities. They make do with what they have as not to fail as much anymore. This is not to say that they find a contrary ultimate goal. They still seek to attain the good life and happiness, but they set their criteria for it in lower standards that they can reach.They seek new desires to fulfill, as these are the things which lead to the good life. Man has always been a desiring creature, always on the lookout for a better state in life. in that location are few who can say truthfully that they have achieved the highest end. This is because most men fail to complete all their desires. The full expression of troopss desires is the ultimate goal of the good life. A person who believes himself to be living the good life does not need or want anything else to make it even better. In other words, he is at his peak, at the maximum level of happiness and pleasure.Every single thing that man desires is for his own good. He does not desire anything that will cause him harm or discomfort. Man desires for one priming and one reason alone to be joyous. When he is truly happy, there is no more need for desiring anything. Even the simplest desire of wanting to be happy (in a general sense) is enough to show that there is something missing. Contentment does not go hand-in-hand with desire. A contented man feels that he is complete and every cheek of his life has fallen fittingly into place.Every person has in himself a list of goals that he aims to achieve. As he grows older, these goals are slowly achieved, but then, more and more desires are also added to the list. Because of this, more often than not, man fails to live his ideal good life. Men, however, who set limits for their desires and know which ones they can achieve, try their best to achieve this, and when they do, they become contented. In a disparate perspective in Gorgias, the character of Socrates refut es Callicles statement of what the ultimate goal of man is.According to Socrates, and Plato himself, as well, the ultimate human goal is represented by virtue (defined as the highest goodand the abstract sum total of all more specific instances of good), and is attained through a proper combination of fitness, temperance, justice, and the other arts (Gorgias Important Terms). Socrates sees pure goodness as the ultimate goal. Callicles, on the other hand, sees the fulfillment of all desires as the ultimate goal, because the desire of wanting to be good and wanting to be virtuous is present.This want is something that is aimed to be achieved, and if this want to be good and virtuous is not achieved, there will be no contentmenttherefore, the ultimate goal cannot be reached. To be living the good life, for Callicles, is to be happy. To be happy is to be able to fulfill all that one desires. When needs and wants are fulfilled, man becomes content. Those who cannot attain all their needs and wants succumb to self-discipline wherein they redeem themselves through achieving less ambitious but more realistic goals, and they control their goals to match their capabilities.Everything man desires, he desires for his own good. It has always been mans nature to choose what is beneficial to him, and will always be that way. These desires are all aimed towards one goal the good life. When man has reached the point wherein he desires no more, he has reached his ultimate goal. Work Cited Gorgias Important Terms. 2009. SparkNotes. 27 April 2009.