Book contents
- Socrates on Self-Improvement
- Socrates on Self-Improvement
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Chapter 1 Socrates as Exemplar
- Chapter 2 Socrates as Apprentice at Virtue
- Chapter 3 Socratic Motivational Intellectualism
- Chapter 4 Socratic Ignorance
- Chapter 5 Is Virtue Sufficient for Happiness?
- Chapter 6 The Necessity of Virtue for Happiness
- Afterword: Review and Assessment
- References
- Index of Passages
- General Index
Chapter 4 - Socratic Ignorance
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 June 2021
- Socrates on Self-Improvement
- Socrates on Self-Improvement
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Chapter 1 Socrates as Exemplar
- Chapter 2 Socrates as Apprentice at Virtue
- Chapter 3 Socratic Motivational Intellectualism
- Chapter 4 Socratic Ignorance
- Chapter 5 Is Virtue Sufficient for Happiness?
- Chapter 6 The Necessity of Virtue for Happiness
- Afterword: Review and Assessment
- References
- Index of Passages
- General Index
Summary
Given Socratic motivational intellectualism, self-improvement in the ethical domain requires self-improvement in the epistemic domain. Gives the details of Socratic epistemology and indicates the ways in which Socrates supposes we can improve our cognitive conditions. Explains the different sources of ignorance and how these can be controlled. Shows how some etiologies of belief-formation are more reliable than others, and how Socrates thinks we can learn to rely more on the more reliable ones and less on those that are less reliable. Explains how the Socratic “search for definitions” and elenctic refutations are exercises in cognitive self-improvement, which does not simply produce repeated failures, but instead greater comprehension of ethical concepts – even if such comprehension is never complete or perfect for a human being.
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- Information
- Socrates on Self-ImprovementKnowledge, Virtue, and Happiness, pp. 68 - 106Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021