
Plato's Politics of Passion
ErĂŽs, Thumos, and Socratic Self-Knowledge in the Charmides, Republic, and Symposium
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Plato's Politics of Passion
ErĂŽs, Thumos, and Socratic Self-Knowledge in the Charmides, Republic, and Symposium
About this book
An original reading of three Platonic dialogues concerned with the soul, tyranny, self-knowledge, and the beautiful.
Guided by the question "What is Socratic self-knowledge," this study begins with Plato's Charmides because it is within this work, more than any other, that the utility of self-knowledge becomes the predominant theme. In this dialogue, Socrates explores the possibility of the very culmination of his philosophical investigationsâknowledge of ignorance. This happens through an investigation of the perplexing concept, sĂŽphrosunĂȘ. Alan Pichanick's approach offers a new perspective upon the perplexing exploration of sĂŽphrosunĂȘ in the Charmides by placing much greater emphasis on the neglected "erotic setting" in the dramatic introduction and argues that our reading of the rest of the dialogue should be done in light of this dramatic setting. The erotic setting of the Charmides combined with the discussion of philosophical wonder in the Symposium and tyrannical erĂŽs in the Republic gives guidance about how to think about the potential connection between Socratic self-knowledge and knowledge of the good and also shows why the characters of Charmides and Critias fail to come to such knowledge. Here we have the Platonic diagnosis of the tyrant, whose soul never wonders at anything beyond itself.
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part 1A: Socrates and Charmides on SĂŽphrosunĂȘ
- Part 1B: Thumos in the Republic and the Symposium
- Part 2A: Socrates and Critias on SĂŽphrosunĂȘ
- Part 2B: Thumos and Tyranny in Republic VIIIâIX
- Part 3A: The Ending of the Dialogue and Socratic SĂŽphrosunĂȘ
- Part 3B: Thauma and SĂŽphrosunĂȘ in the Republic and Symposium
- Concluding Remarks
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Back Cover