Calliclès

Summary

Dominique Pagani often returns to Callicles, the interlocutor in Plato's Gorgias, whom he consistently calls a "little Nazi" before the fact, or the "pre-Nietzschean"12. He retains his thesis: nature wills that the strongest dominate, and laws, like pity and morality, are invented by the weak, the "herd", to keep the strong in captivity34. He points out that Callicles keeps changing his criterion of strength, moving from physical force to cunning or intelligence without distinguishing them5. Yet he grants him one point: in human beings, law goes against nature6. He also stresses that Callicles threatens Socrates with the rod, which in his view shows that the Platonic dialogue is serious and takes place under the threat of violence7. Finally, he notes that Callicles is, in his view, the only character invented by Plato, and links him to neo-Nietzscheanism and to what he calls postmodern "eco-Nazi-ism".

1. 1L'île du Peuple : le débat23 Jun 2015 · 24:22
2. 2#4.5 Angélique (de Nerval)12 Feb 2018 · 1:36:50
3. 3Platon14 Sept 2015 · 24:52
4. 4Les silences du vacarme médiatique - nouveau cycle : la renazification atlantiste.21 Oct 2025 · 48:39
5. 5Platon14 Sept 2015 · 47:53
6. 6Platon14 Sept 2015 · 51:16
7. 7#5.1 bis FaceBook Live / Questions2 Nov 2018 · 29:12

Summary produced automatically from 27 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.