Knowledge and Temperance in Plato's Charmides

Toward the end of the Charmides, Socrates declares the search for temperance a ‘complete failure’ (175b2‐3). Despite this, commentators have suspected that the dialogue might contain an implicit answer about temperance. I propose a new interpretation: the dialogue implies that temperance is the know...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPacific philosophical quarterly Vol. 99; no. 4; pp. 763 - 789
Main Author Clark, Justin C.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.12.2018
Subjects
Behavior
Dialogue
Ethics
Knowledge
Plato (427-347 BC)
Self awareness
Soul
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Summary:Toward the end of the Charmides, Socrates declares the search for temperance a ‘complete failure’ (175b2‐3). Despite this, commentators have suspected that the dialogue might contain an implicit answer about temperance. I propose a new interpretation: the dialogue implies that temperance is the knowledge of good and bad, when this knowledge is applied specifically to certain operations of the soul. This amounts to a kind of self‐knowledge; it also involves a kind of reflexivity, for it involves knowing about the value of one's knowledge. This positive reading, more than any other, makes sense of the dialogue's dramatic and dialectic features.
ISSN:0279-0750
1468-0114
DOI:10.1111/papq.12218