Debating freedom: analysis of a discourse in Socrates’ conversations with Callicles and Aristippus

Abstract

This paper aims at analyzing the differences in views on human freedom as seen in Socrates’ argument with the sophist Callicles and his own pupil Aristippus. These differences reflect sociocultural issues that emerged amid the crisis of the classical polis, and called for rethinking an antinomy between freedom and slavery, typical of antiquity. While Socrates emerges victorious in both discussions, his understanding of freedom is not devoid of contradictions, stipulated by an attempt to combine freedom of a thinking person with the traditional unity of a civic community. At the same time, this debate brings to light a new dimension of human freedom that allows a human being to stay true to oneself even in a poorest social environment, namely one’s spiritual freedom.