Charmides (dialogue)
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| This article is part of the series: The Dialogues of Plato |
| Early dialogues: |
| Apology - Charmides - Crito |
| Euthyphro - First Alcibiades |
| Hippias Major - Hippias Minor |
| Ion - Laches - Lysis |
| Transitional & middle dialogues: |
| Cratylus - Euthydemus - Gorgias |
| Menexenus - Meno - Phaedo |
| Protagoras - Symposium |
| Later middle dialogues: |
| The Republic - Phaedrus |
| Parmenides - Theaetetus |
| Late dialogues: |
| Timaeus - Critias |
| The Sophist – The Statesman |
| Philebus - Laws |
| Of doubtful authenticity: |
| Clitophon – Epinomis |
| Epistles - Hipparchus |
| Minos - Rival Lovers |
| Second Alcibiades - Theages |
- Charmides is also the name of a poem by Oscar Wilde.
The Charmides (ancient Greek Χαρμίδης) is a dialogue of Plato, in which Socrates engages a handsome and popular boy in a conversation about the meaning of sophrosune, a Greek word usually translated into English as "temperance", "self-control", or "restraint". As is typical with Platonic dialgoues, the two never arrive at a completely satisfactory definition, but the discussion nevertheless raises many important points.
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[edit] The setting
Socrates narrates the dialog, and says that he has just escaped from a battle at Potidaea, a comment which recalls Alcibiades comment in the Symposium, that Socrates escaped the battle at Delium with the general Laches (Symp. 221a). Socrates says that shortly after the fighting began, he slipped back to his old haunts at the palaestra of Taureas where the boys gather. With the help of Chaerephon, he found his way to the side of Critias, and asked him about the present state of philosophy, and who among the boys was gaining in wisdom or beauty, or both. Critias says that Charmides is the boy of the moment, almost a young man.
Critias tells Socrates that Charmides is his cousin, son of his uncle Glaucon, and just then Charmides enters the scene and causes huge consternation in the crowd. Chaerephon rushes over and asks Socrates if the boy is not beautiful, and Socrates agrees. Chaerephon says suggestively that if Socrates could see his naked form, he would forget all about his handsome face. Socrates says all this will be good and well if the boy also has a noble soul. Socrates tells Critias that before they look at his body, they will ask the boy to strip and show them his soul.
[edit] The struggle to define
Socrates tells Critias that there would be no shame in his just talking to the beautiful and popular boy, even if he were younger than he is. Socrates informs the reader that Critias is the child's guardian or caretaker ("epitrophos"), a kind of parent surrogate, or in English, "babysitter" (155a). Critias agrees and tells an attendant to tell Charmides to come and see the physician ("iatros") about an illness that Charmides has complained about. Critias suggests that Socrates pretend to know a cure for a headache to lure the boy over.
Charmides first suggests that sophrosne is a kind of quietness (159b). Socrates talks him out of this, and Charmides proposes that sophrosne is the same as modesty. Socrates says this can't be right because Homer doesn't think so (160e). Charmides proposes that temperance is minding your own business. Socrates finds this particularly offensive, and tells Charmides that he must have heard this from some fool (162b). Socrates can tell from the uneasy look on Critias face that this was his idea, and they exchange some words. Socrates says to him testily that at his age, Charmides can hardly be expected to understand temperance (162e). Lastly, Charmides suggests that temperance might be the same as self-knowledge. Socrates confesses as they discuss this that his motive in refuting Charmides is to examine himself, that he pursues the argument for his own sake (166c,d).
Charmides' suggestion that sophrosne is self-knowledge spurs Socrates to a discussion of the relation between medicine and science. He says that medicine is the science of health and disease, and that a person who does not understand these things is not in a position to judge a real physician from a quack (171c). He says that if wisdom really is knowing what you know and knowing what you don't know, no one would ever make a mistake, and we would pass through life unerring. He concludes that this does not happen, and that science is impossible.
Socrates say he dreams, however, of a world in which no one pretends to be something he is not (173a-d). In the end, Socrates appears to have recruited a new disciple to philosophy: Charmides says he is willing to be charmed everyday by Socrates, and Critias tells the boy that if he is willing to do this, he will have proof of his temperance. Charmides says that if his guardian instructs him to submit to Socrates' charms, then he would be wrong not to do it.
[edit] Rhetorical strategy
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Plato uses an important rhetorical device, the parallel analogy, to make his point that Socrates is a quack "doctor to the soul" ("psyche-iatros"). Socrates pretends to be a quack doctor ("iatros") who can cure a headache, and then performs a bait and switch on the child: he tells Charmides that before his body can be cured, his spirit must be cured of its own "disease", which is ignorance. A completely ignorant man, Socrates can no more cure the child of his ignorance than he can cure his headache.
Socrates' analogy, that the philosopher is to ignorance what disease is to the physician is important and persistent in the dialogs. And everywhere, Socrates fails to effect a cure. In the Protagoras, for example, when the sophist Prodicus accuses Socrates of making a mess of their discussion, Socrates accepts the complaint and calls himself a laughable doctor ("geloios iatros"), whose treatment not only does not cure the disease, it worsens it (Protagoras 340e).
A variation on the medical theme is in the Theaetetus, where Socrates become a female doctor. Socrates compares himself to a midwife who helps boys and men give birth to their ideas. He says there that he (never having conceived of a viable idea himself) is barren, and has frequently had to commit the intellectual equivalent of infanticide (Theaetetus 160e).
[edit] Translations
- Benjamin Jowett, 1870: full text
- Walter Rangeley Maitland Lamb, 1927: full text
- Rosamond Kent Sprague, 1973
- Thoams G. West and Grace Starry West, 1986
