Abstract
In the Charmides, Socrates states several conditions on his interlocutors under which he is willing to teach them. In order to reveal these conditions, the paper considers, besides the dramaturgical features of the dialogue and the behavior of Socrates’ interlocutors, the inter-textual context of other dialogues (mainly Symposium, Laches and Republic), and the extra-textual context of Plato’s unwritten doctrine.
The connection of these three variously wide contexts indicates that both Critias and Charmides fail to satisfy the required conditions since they are not honest and bold, mild and non-violent and they lack ability to understand the teachings of dialectics. These deficiencies characterize – via negationis – the so called “cardinal virtues” that are all identical with sôphrosunê defined as “doing one’s own”, conceived as a state of an inner psychic order.