Philosophia in Plato's Gorgias

The Gorgias appears to laud philosophy (philosophia) against the life of wholesale rhetorical self-assertion, with Socrates as the total philosopher and Gorgias, Polus, and Callicles as total non-philosophers who advocate instead for rhetoric or political dominance. But we should not assume that the dialogue intends ultimately to contrast doing philosophy with not doing it at all. It instead contrasts two ways to grant philosophy authority over one's life: completely versus incompletely. Callicles admits to practicing philosophy but also to the belief that he should not do too much philosophizing: he believes that the good of philosophy interferes with other goods. Socrates and Callicles share a conception of philosophy but they differ in the way they configure their lives around that practice: Socrates, and not Callicles, gives over his life wholly and resolutely to it.