Single Idea 131

[catalogued under 23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 3. Virtues / b. Temperance]

Full Idea

Callicles: If people who need nothing are happy, there would be nothing happier than a stone or a corpse.

Gist of Idea

If absence of desire is happiness, then nothing is happier than a stone or a corpse

Source

Plato (Gorgias [c.378 BCE], 492e)

Book Reference

Plato: 'Gorgias', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP World's Classics 1994], p.80


A Reaction

We aren't really supposed to approve of Callicles, but to me this is a splendidly crushing western response to many of the ideals found in eastern philosophy.