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Charmides

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General Summary

Important Terms

Philosophical Themes, Arguments, and Ideas

Section 1 (153a–157c)

Section 2 (157c–162b)

Section 3 (162b–165e)

Section 4 (165e–169c)

Section 5 (169c–172c)

Section 6 (172c–176d)

Important Quotes

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Charmides

Plato

Quiz

What organization is Socrates returning from at the beginning of the dialogue?

(A) The Senate

(B) The Army

(C) The Delphic Prophets

(D) The Academy

What do Socrates's friends ask him about first upon his arrival?

(A) His latest philosophy

(B) His love for Charmides

(C) His trip back

(D) A recent battle

Who is Charmides' "guardian"?

(A) Critias

(B) Socrates

(C) Chaerophon

(D) Glaucon

Which two major qualities does sophrosyne connote?

(A) Agility and grace

(B) Piety and bravery

(C) Temperance and grace

(D) Temperance and bravery

What makes Socrates feel a "wild-beast appetite"?

(A) The possibility of learning from the wise

(B) A glimpse beneath Charmides' robes

(C) Battle

(D) His first look at Charmides

Why does Socrates claim to be a bad judge of beauty in youths?

(A) Because all youths seem beautiful to him

(B) Because he's getting old

(C) Because he doesn't want to share his opinion of Charmides

(D) Because beauty is nothing without wisdom

What illness does Charmides complain of?

(A) Chest pains

(B) Ignorance

(C) Indigestion

(D) Headaches

Where does Socrates claim to have gotten his "charm" cure from?

(A) The Delphic oracle

(B) The gods

(C) Thracian doctors

(D) Charmides himself

What question opens the Socrates dialogue with Charmides?

(A) What is temperance?

(B) Does Charmides possess temperance?

(C) How can one teach self-knowledge?

(D) What good does self-knowledge do?

What is Charmides' first definition of temperance?

(A) Self-knowledge

(B) The good

(C) Quietness

(D) Quickness

Who does Socrates quote as saying, "Modesty is not good for a needy man"?

(A) Homer

(B) Hesiod

(C) Prodicus

(D) Glaucon

What does Socrates claim about the definition of temperance as "doing our own business"?

(A) It is false

(B) It echoes what the poets have said

(C) It is a riddle

(D) It does not apply to the ideal State

Who does Critias quote on the nature of work?

(A) Homer

(B) Hesiod

(C) Prodicus

(D) Glaucon

Which "sciences" serve as Socrates's two most frequent examples in the Charmides?

(A) Craftsman and physicians

(B) Architects and craftsmen

(C) Philosophers and physicians

(D) Craftsmen and philosophers

What does Critias claim about the true nature of the Delphic oracle's statement, "Know thyself"?

(A) It is a prophecy

(B) It is impossible

(C) It is a greeting

(D) It is a metaphor

What does Critias object to in Socrates's manner of argument?

(A) He never reaches a conclusion

(B) He is too long-winded

(C) He is missing in the point

(D) He is only interested in refutation

Critias initially proposes that temperance is a science of what?

(A) Of the good

(B) A man's self

(C) The other sciences

(D) Itself

Which example does Socrates see as a possible case of something defined by self- relation?

(A) The power of fire to burn

(B) The power of the eye to see

(C) The power of the physician to heal

(D) The power of philosophy to pursue knowledge

Why does Socrates claim to keep the discussion going after he perplexes Critias?

(A) In the interest of knowledge

(B) Because Critias has a reputation to maintain

(C) Because Charmides is present

(D) Because a solution seems near

A major problem with the knowledge of knowledge is that the man who has it knows that he knows, but cannot know what?

(A) How he knows

(B) Why he knows

(C) What he knows

(D) When he knows

What figure does Critias's nitpicky distinctions between working, doing, and making remind Socrates of?

(A) Homer

(B) Hesiod

(C) Prodicus

(D) Glaucon

How does Socrates introduce his anxiety about the idea of the perfect, wisdom- governed state?

(A) As a dream

(B) As a prophecy

(C) As a philosophy

(D) As a riddle

What does Socrates worry might be missing from the perfect, wisdom-governed state?

(A) Temperance

(B) Self-knowledge

(C) Physicians

(D) Happiness

What is the problem, by the end of the dialogue, with Socrates's "charm" to produce temperance?

(A) It hasn't worked for Charmides

(B) It appears to be useless

(C) Charmides already has temperance

(D) Temperance hasn't been defined yet

What relation to Socrates does Charmides occupy by then end of the dialogue?

(A) Fellow philosopher

(B) Pupil

(C) Lover

(D) Godson

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