Notes from Tuesday's class on Socrates vs. Polus and Callicles

Lines that struck me as significant in the reading for today:

474a: Socrates admits his expertise only works in one-on-one discussions. He mentions this again at 476a.
475a: After introducing the term "admirable," Socrates here suggests the term "contempt," as well. Polus's argument has now been transformed from that of internal sensation (getting hurt is bad, because it hurts) to external judgment (hurting people is worse, because it's contemptible behavior.)
477a: Socrates introduces ideas of betterment and benefit as goals of behavior.
479c: Socrates suggests that rhetoric is used as a tool that allows people to behave immorally.
482e: Callicles accuses Socrates of relying on conventional, populist arguments. (Each has, by this point, accused the other of being conventional.)
483b: Callicles makes explicit the masculine nature of his argument: a real man doesn't consider himself "wronged" (and, it's implied, therefore doesn't need any defense provided by societal ideas of protective justice.)
487e: Socrates lists three questions that he feels the attempt to answer makes for "the finest work in the world."
490c: Socrates suggests it is more "appropriate" to use one's strengths in the service of the community.
494a: A tricky moment: the "jars" metaphor is used against Callicles. Yet we could think of contemporary expressions--"The journey is the destination," for instance, or "It's about the process, not the product"--that suggest that Callicles could defend his view with a slightly-modified reading of the metaphor. He doesn't do this, though.
497a: Socrates claims that feeling pleasure doesn't necessarily mean one is living well, and that feeling distress doesn't mean one is living badly.

That's enough for now. See you Thursday.