Philosophy 101 (Bentley College)

Assignment for Wednesday, December 1

Reading:

Plato, Gorgias, 499b–505c, 521a–522e, and 527a–e (pp. 76–85, 104–107, and 112–113)
"Notes on Logic, part III" (distributed in class; also available as a PDF file)

Notes and questions:

At 500a, Socrates asks, "Now is it for every man to pick out which kinds of pleasures are good ones and which are bad ones, or does this require a craftsman in each case?", to which Callicles replies, "It requires a craftsman." This introduction of the idea of a craftsman will seem very peculiar if you do not bear in mind that the Greek word translated as "craftsman" here, technikos, can also be translated as "expert": it means one who is master of a tekhnê, a practical knowledge of some particular subject matter. Socrates' point is that only someone with such knowledge (of what, he has not yet said) is competent to tell good pleasures from bad ones.
At 500b, Socrates invokes the distinction he drew earlier (464b–465a) between crafts, such as medicine and justice, which are based on knowledge and are concerned with promoting what is good, and mere knacks, such as pastry-baking and oratory, which are not based on knowledge and are concerned only with producing what pleases, regardless of whether it is good. At 502e–503a, however, Socrates entertains the idea that only some oratory fits the latter description, and in what follows (especially 503e–504e), he describes a different sort of orator. What does this other kind of orator do? What is the good that he promotes?
At 521e–522a, Socrates asks Callicles to imagine what would happen if a doctor had to compete with a pastry cook to persuade an audience of children that he and not the other knows what is best for them. What analogy does he intend by this sketch?