The Problem of Human Happiness in Plato’s Gorgias (Platonic “Care for the Soul”)

Abstract

Plato in the Gorgias discusses the subject of human happiness in the context of people’s moral condition and the ethical ideals professed by them. The discussion is conducted by Socrates with young sophists. Sophists take a relativistic view of morality by reducing it to cultural and social values. Socrates is convinced that moral ideas such as righteousness and justice have greater power than do culture and human institutions. Contrary to young Sophists who reduce human nature to biological and social instincts, he also sees an immortal soul in man. The innate quality of the soul is moral sensitivity, which makes man conscious of and focused on moral magnitude. Plato made human happiness dependent on awakening moral sensitivity, giving it a clear ethical meaning. Happiness is derived from, first of all, the moral condition of man and particularly his sense of justice and his sensitivity to another man’s ill-fortune. The greatest unhappiness man can experience, according to Plato, is to disgrace himself by harming someone. It is expressed by Plato’s principle of “not doing harm”.