Desire makes us all Sophists. We can convince ourselves of anything, even when we know that the consequences of our actions might not be physically, emotionally, or mentally healthful.
The fifth century B.C.E. Sophists started out as a group of profitable teachers, and then they became rhetoricians. Gorgias, the renowned member of the group, argued that he could convince anyone of anything regardless of his personal knowledge of the matter. The goal of any Sophist is winning an argument, and that’s what desire imitates.
We grow into our Sophism. We become rational beings, and then we use our rationality in the service of any purpose we wish, arguing with ourselves in the service of desire. Philosophy often loses; ethics and morality, too. Desire is the ultimate rhetorician in our lives. If you want to oppose it in an argument, you need considerable wit and stamina. Desire is the Gorgias each of us faces as we attempt to balance our lives between what we want and what we know to be physically, emotionally, and mentally healthful for us. Be thoughtful because this clever opponent rarely loses an argument.
The fifth century B.C.E. Sophists started out as a group of profitable teachers, and then they became rhetoricians. Gorgias, the renowned member of the group, argued that he could convince anyone of anything regardless of his personal knowledge of the matter. The goal of any Sophist is winning an argument, and that’s what desire imitates.
We grow into our Sophism. We become rational beings, and then we use our rationality in the service of any purpose we wish, arguing with ourselves in the service of desire. Philosophy often loses; ethics and morality, too. Desire is the ultimate rhetorician in our lives. If you want to oppose it in an argument, you need considerable wit and stamina. Desire is the Gorgias each of us faces as we attempt to balance our lives between what we want and what we know to be physically, emotionally, and mentally healthful for us. Be thoughtful because this clever opponent rarely loses an argument.
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