Callicles

5th-century BC Greek political philosopher

PersonhumanQ553801

Born: 5th century BCE
Died: unknown
Birthplace: Athens
Citizenship: Classical Athens
Occupation: rhetorician
Languages spoken, written or signed: Ancient Greek

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Callicles is thought to have been an ancient Athenian political philosopher. He figures prominently in Plato’s dialogue Gorgias, where he "presents himself as a no-holds-barred, bare-knuckled, clear-headed advocate of Realpolitik". In terms of dramatic action, his function in the dialogue is to provide a counter-argument to Plato's philosophical ideas. The absence of contemporaneous sources external to this single text attesting to his existence has suggested to some that he may be no more than a character created by Plato for the dialogue. In this vein, it has also been proposed that Callicles may have been devised by Plato as he imagined what kind of intellectual he might have become had he not met with Socrates and undergone his formative philosophical life under the latter's tutelage. He is the antithesis to Socrates.

Overview

All data

30 statements · 13% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Sex or gender: male
Name in native language: Καλλικλῆς
Field of work: political philosophy

On other databases

19 identifiers linking Callicles across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

13%

externally sourced

Source last edited May 12, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). Callicles (Q553801). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/callicles-Q553801