Socratic Ignorance and Platonic Knowledge in the Dialogues of Plato, livre ebook

In this highly original and provocative book, Sara Ahbel-Rappe argues that the Platonic dialogues contain an esoteric Socrates who signifies a profound commitment to self-knowledge and whose appearances in the dialogues are meant to foster the practice of self-inquiry. According to Ahbel-Rappe, the elenchus, or inner examination, and the thesis that virtue is knowledge, are tools for a contemplative practice that teaches us how to investigate the mind and its objects directly. In other words, the Socratic persona of the dialogues represents wisdom, which is distinct from and serves as the larger space in which Platonic knowledge—ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics—is constructed. Ahbel-Rappe offers complete readings of the Apology, Charmides, Alcibiades I, Euthyphro, Lysis, Phaedrus, Theaetetus, and Parmenides, as well as parts of the Republic. Her interpretation challenges two common approaches to the figure of Socrates: the thesis that the dialogues represent an "early" Plato who later disavows his reliance on Socratic wisdom, and the thesis that Socratic ethics can best be expressed by the construct of eudaimonism or egoism.
Preface: Socrates as an Esoteric Figure
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Socratic Ignorance and Platonic Knowledge
1. Socratic Philosophy
2. Socratic Receptions
3. Socrates and Self‑Knowledge
4. Euthydemus: Native and Foreign
5. Alcibiades I: The Mirror of Socrates
6. Lysis: The Aporetic Identity of the First Friend
7. From Virtues to Forms in the Phaedrus
8. Theaetetus: Socrates’s Interrogation of Platonic Knowledge
9. “He Who Is Wisest among You”: Socratic Ignorance between the Parmenides and the Apology
Conclusion. The Socratic Paradigm
Notes
Works Cited
Index