PHIL 1F91 Lecture 12: charmides
3 Feb 2017
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The dialogue really begins when its noted that charmides, a bootiful young man from an outstanding aristocratic family is seeking treatment for a headache. Headache in q used as a metaphor to explain the tension we feel in regard to self-control: sometimes we are pained by our desires or propensities which we know are vices. Course of treatment to heal the entire body not just the head. Plato will develop this solution in more detail to resolve our experience of being furrowed He argues in the republic that we need to become our own best friend. Charmides: uncle of plato; later became 1/30 tyrants (made in 404 bce after athens lost to sparta in peloponnesian war) Ciritias: part of 30, known for his cruel & oppressive tactics & propensity to fly into rages. It is ironic, then, that plato would choose these figures as his interlocutors for this dialogue.
