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Plato's Charmides : positive Elenchus in a "Socratic" dialogue / Thomas M. Tuozzo

Author
Tuozzo, Thomas M., 1955-
Published
Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Physical Description
1 online resource (xii, 359 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).
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Contents
Part I. Approaching the Dialogue: 1. Methodological preliminaries; 2. Historical and cultural context -- Part II. Appropaching the Argument: 3. The opening scene of the Charmides; 4. Dialectic in the Charmides -- Part III. The Dialectical Investigation: 5. Sophrosyne and its value; 6. Sophrosyne as self-knowledge: two reformulations; 7. Possibility of self-knowledge: Critian formulation; 8. Possibilitiy of self-knowledge; Socratic formulation; 9. Return of the value question; 10. Socrates' final speech and closing scene; 11. Sophrosyne, knowledge, and the good.
Summary
This book argues that Plato's Charmides presents a unitary but incomplete argument intended to lead its readers to substantive philosophical insights. Through careful, contextually sensitive analysis of Plato's arguments concerning the virtue of sophrosyne, Thomas M. Tuozzo brings the dialogue's lines of inquiry together, carrying Plato's argument forward to a substantive conclusion. This innovative reading of Charmides reverses misconceptions about the dialogue that stemmed from an impoverished conception of Socratic elenchus and unquestioned acceptance of ancient historiography's demonization of Critias. It views Socratic argument as a tool intended to move its addressee to substantive philosophical insights. It also argues, on the basis of recent historical research, a review of the fragments of Critias' oeuvre and Plato's use of Critias in other dialogues, that Plato had a nuanced, generally positive view of Critias. Throughout, readers are alerted to textual difficulties whose proper resolution is crucial to understanding Plato's often abstract arguments.
Subject(s)
ISBN
9780511993497 (ebook)
9780521190404 (hardback)
9781107664616 (paperback)
Note
Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).
View MARC record | catkey: 34847464