The Charmides offers examples on the untranslatable Greek virtue, sphrosun, and the influential definition of it as knowledge of oneself. Socrates begins with a discussion of sphrosun with Charmides and then with his mentor Critias. Socrates considers whether self-knowledge is possible, and whether it is any good to us. This chapter examines the arguments that show that self-knowledge is impossible, or, if not, thoroughly odd.
Keywords: Socrates, Critias, self-knowledge, the self, Relations Argument, self-perception, perception