the gorgias myth (j. v. schall)

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TUESDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2011

The Gorgias Myth

By James V. Schall, S. J. 2

n the dialogues of Plato, we find four eschatological myths about what happens after death as a result of how men lived. All four stories basically teach the same thing.

The shortest account is in the Gorgias , a dialogue between Socrates andCallicles, a suave, shrewd politician. He finds it absurd to think that the politician cannotdo what he wants. He holds the power of life and death. All the philosopher has in hisspeech, his mind.

Socrates tries to convince Callicles that his position, that it is better to do evil thanto suffer it, is wrong. He accuses Socrates of childishness, a man unable to defend

himself in the real world against those with power to kill him.Socrates primary concern is whether the world itself is created in injustice. In this

life, not all evil deeds are punished, nor are all good deeds rewarded. But Socrates alsoholds that the gods cannot be unjust. Thus, in logic, if the world is unjust, no gods are

possible. Much is at stake.

When Socrates explains ultimate things, he often concludes with a story, an accountof life after death. The teaching of the souls immortality is a consequence of thisexperience. Realistic politics indicates that, frequently, the unjust are rewarded and thegood punished. If this cosmic disorder is the case, surely the gods are unjust. We cannotexpect anything better.

Socrates teaching about punishment horrifies Callicles, especially by his insistencethat someone who commits a crime or sins should want to be punished. The worst thingwe can do to such a man, says Socrates, is not to punish him. He thus continues to live adisordered life. To will to be punished is to acknowledge ones own part in the disorder.

Callicles sees how this doctrine restricts the politicians power of doing what hewants. He cannot admit that some principle of what is right is stronger than this de facto

political power to kill whomever he wants.

In the myth, in the time of Cronos, people were judged before they died. They wereudged fully clothed so that their bare souls were obscured by prestige, money, or power.

This method let those who were unjust be rewarded and those who were just unrewarded.

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Socrates, after the sculptor Lysippos, his contemporary

Zeus decides to stop this injustice. Henceforth, all judgment, exercised by Minos,Radamanthus, and Aeacus, would take place after death. All would be naked so thatnothing is concealed.

Radamanthus, presiding in Asia, judges Great Kings or potentates. Many crimes arestamped on their bodies and souls: Everything was warped as a result of deception and

pretense, and nothing was straight, all because the soul had been nurtured withouttruth. (525a-26a)

Usually, punishment justly inflicted makes men better because they see that it points

to what is wrong. The wrongness, as in the similar myth in the Phaedo , can only beforgiven if the one against whom the crime is committed forgives.

In the Gorgias , the same teaching is found. In a passage hinting at the doctrine of Purgatory, we read: Those who are benefited, who are made to pay their due by godsand men, are the ones whose errors are curable; even so, their benefit comes to them, bothhere and in Hades, by way of pain and suffering, for there is no other possible way to getrid of injustice. That is indeed a remarkable passage.

Yet in Hades, the judges find that those least likely to repent their crimes are the politicians: From those who have committed the ultimate wrongs and who because of such crimes have become incurable come the ones who are made examples of. Thedoctrine of Callicles is precisely that no punishment can be requited on those who committhe great crimes.

Who commits these crimes? The majority of these examples have come from theranks of tyrants, kings, potentates, and those active in the affairs of cities, for these peoplecommit the most grievous and impious errors because theyre in a position to do so. Thisobservation suggests the link between politics and evil, the dilemma of Plato aboutwhether the world is created in injustice. It does seem that the great crimes go unpunishedwithout final judgment.

In the end, Callicles refused to discuss the matter further with Socrates. Calliclessees the logic that undermined his own position. Socratess last words to Callicles were:The fact is, Callicles, that those persons who become extremely wicked do come from


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the ranks of the powerful, although theres certainly nothing to stop good men fromturning up among the powerful, and those who do turn up there deserve to beenthusiastically admitted.

Politics, in its eschatological dimensions, thus remains a hazardous business. Theworld is not created in injustice.

James V. Schall, S.J. , a professor at Georgetown University, is one of the most prolificCatholic writers in America. His most recent book is The Mind That Is Catholic .

2011 The Catholic Thing . All rights reserved. For reprint rights, write to:[email protected]

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