February 5

In addition to means/ends analysis, some philosophers have held that there is some “final end” or ultimate goal that our actions aim at. We will introduce this notion by spending more time with Plato's Gorgias, particularly Callicles' hedonistic understanding of the good life and his debate with Socrates about whether pleasure is the ultimate goal of life. We will then test Callicles' theory against our own experiences as these have become elucidated in the Desire Exercises. Part of this class session will also be spent learning about philosophical arguments and the terminology used to talk about them.