Phil Guides — Understanding Plato's Charmides
Visual First-Read Edition
This is a tutorial, not a retelling. Plato's Charmides is a masterpiece of one question: what is the inner order we praise when we call someone temperate — and can a stack of knowledges replace knowledge of the good?
You will watch five names fail on purpose: a manner, a feeling, a civic slogan, a lucky good deed, and a science whose only object is science. Each failure is a piece of knowledge you can use.
Read the plates first. They carry the thoughts. The notes teach them. If a figure and a note disagree, reread both.
This edition includes:
- Original study notes for each chapter
- Original diagrams that map arguments, characters, and structure
- Original charts summarizing themes and comparisons
Contents
How to Read Charmides — What this masterpiece is for
Look at the Soul First — Beauty is not yet inner order
The Part Is Never Well Without the Whole — Why a copied cure is not a treatment of the soul
Not Quietness — A manner is not an excellence
A Sometimes-Good Is Not the Virtue — Shame, slogans, and the riddle of 'one's own'
Know Thyself — A good result is not yet a virtue, and a greeting is not a tip
A Science of Science — Knowing that you know is not knowing what
Expertise Without the Good — A city of true arts still would not know how to live
What You Now Know — The ladder, the last turn, and how to go on