Plato's Charmides

Plato's Charmides is a rich mix of drama and argument. Raphael Woolf offers a comprehensive interpretation of its disparate elements that pays close attention to its complex and layered structure, and to the methodology of reading Plato. He thus aims to present a compelling and unified interpretation of the dialogue as a whole. The book mounts a strong case for the formal separation of Plato the author from his character Socrates, and for the Charmides as a Platonic defence of the written text as a medium for philosophical reflection. It lays greater emphasis than other readings on the centrality of eros to an understanding of Socratic procedure in the Charmides, and on how the dialogue's erotic and medical motifs work together. The book's critical engagement with the dialogue allows a worked-out account to be given of how temperance, the central object of enquiry in the work, is to be conceived.

'I recommend Woolf's reading especially to those interested in the relationships that Plato represents between Socrates and interlocutors, in Socrates' attitudes toward those individuals, and in Plato's strategies for pushing us to deeper critical responses.' David J. Murphy, Exemplaria Classica

RAPHAEL WOOLF is a Professor of Philosophy at King's College London. He has published widely on Greek and Roman philosophy, including many articles on Plato. Recent books include Rereading Ancient Philosophy: Old Chestnuts and Sacred Cows (co-edited with Verity Harte, Cambridge 2017); Cicero: The Philosophy of a Roman Sceptic (2015); and Aristotle: Eudemian Ethics (co-edited and translated with Brad Inwood, 2013).

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