| Summary: | "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, Socrate explores the possibility of ignorance. This happens through an investigation of the perplexing concept, sôphrosunê in the Charmides by placing much greater emphasis on the neglected 'erotic setting' in 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 erôs 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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