Socrates and Self-Knowledge

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In this book, the first systematic study of Socrates' reflections on self-knowledge, Christopher Moore examines the ancient precept 'Know yourself' and, drawing on Plato, Aristophanes, Xenophon, and others, reconstructs and reassesses the arguments about self-examination, personal ideals, and moral maturity at the heart of the Socratic project. What has been thought to be a purely epistemological or metaphysical inquiry turns out to be deeply ethical, intellectual, and social. Knowing yourself is more than attending to your beliefs, discerning the structure of your soul, or recognizing your ignorance - it is constituting yourself as a self who can be guided by knowledge toward the good life. This is neither a wholly introspective nor a completely isolated pursuit: we know and constitute ourselves best through dialogue with friends and critics. This rich and original study will be of interest to researchers in the philosophy of Socrates, selfhood, and ancient thought. Cover Half-title Title page Copyright information Dedication Epigraph Table of contents Preface Acknowledgments 1 Introduction: Socrates and the precept “Know yourself” The benefits of studying Socrates and self-knowledge Some theses about Socratic self-knowledge Witnesses to the historical Socrates’ interest in the “Know yourself” The earliest witnesses to the challenge “Know yourself” The Delphic inscription Some common but dismissive views of Socratic self-knowledge Some sympathetic views of Socratic self-knowledge Self-knowledge and self-constitution What one knows when knowing oneself Knowing oneself and knowing another Sôphrosunê and self-knowledge Non-Socratic self-knowledge Structure of the book 2 Charmides: on impossibility and uselessness Two problems with self-knowledge Critias and the Delphic inscription The route to a definition Apollo’s greeting as explanation Two scenes of recognition and conversation Greetings that are not advice but urgings-on instead The greeting “Know yourself” Ways of knowing oneself Procedure 1: admission Procedure 2: introspection Procedure 3: inference from external appearance Procedure 4: testing of one’s avowals Procedure 5: testing plausible ideas Two obstacles to self-knowledge Impossibility Possibility Uselessness and benefit Conclusion 3 Alcibiades: mirrors of the soul New problems Knowing one’s desires Knowing selfhood Knowing oneself as a knower A difficulty only now The model of a self-seeing eye Two kinds of reflection Rationality and divinity Sôphrosunê and ownership A young man’s coming to know himself Conclusion 4 Phaedrus: less conceited than Typhon Alcibiades and Phaedrus Four puzzles Socrates’ present inability Typhon “As if in a mirror” Mania and sôphrosunê A parallel practice Myth-rectification and self-knowledge Two analogical practices The necessity of continuous myth-rectification Knowing oneself as putting oneself in line with what is plausible Conclusion Consistency with other parts of the dialogue Consistency with other Socratic literature 5 Philebus: pleasure and unification Pictures of useless and useful self-knowledge in three dialogues A prelude about reflexivity and pleasure Debaters’ puzzles about unity and selfhood Realizing one’s pleasures Phronêsis and acknowledgment Memory and time True belief and choice-making Calculation and the future The human life with pleasure Comedy and self-ignorance Self-knowledge, unification, and the choiceworthy life 6 Xenophon’s Memorabilia 4.2: owning yourself A reputedly impoverished picture A dialogue about self-knowledge Knowing yourself as knowing your powers Problems with the “knowing your powers” view Knowing yourself as knowing about justice Knowing yourself as coming to own yourself The benefits of self-knowledge and conversation Knowing yourself as knowing the good Socratic indirection Conclusion 7 Conclusion: challenges and a defense The unambiguous benefits of self-knowledge in the Rival Lovers Overturning the gnôthi sauton in the Hipparchus The modern Hipparchan attitude toward “knowing yourself” An apology for Socratic self-knowledge Bibliography Index