Socrates' Doctrine of the 'Unity of Virtue and Knowledge'

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Other Title
  • ソクラテス教説「徳は知である」考
  • Based on Plato's Early Dialogues
  • プラトン初期対話篇を手がかりとして

Description

Socrates' theory of the 'Unity of Virtue and Knowledge' implies that in order to lead a virtuous (good) life, all that is needed is to know what a virtuous (good) life means. But Socrates was firmly convinced that the knowledge of living virtuously (hereafter called 'kowledge') can never be fully attained by man. Hence, the 'knowledge' in the context of 'Unity of Virtue and Knowledge' is a human knowledge (anthropinê sophia) which possesses the following double meaning : <BR>One is the realization of the fact that man cannot attain the 'knowledge' concerning virtue (the Good); the other meaning implies that nevertheless and keeping in mind the above-mentioned realization, one should continue to strive after that 'knowledge'.<BR>By the question, 'what is virtue' Socrates makes his partner in the dialogue stand in a non-daily, contemplative, critical-existential, spiritual situation quite different from the daily routine situation governed by opinion (doxa) and there makes him discover the 'human knowledge' (anthropinê sophia).<BR>Because how to live the good life (virtue) cannot be known by man, the answer remains forever a question. In other words, the 'knowledge' how to live the good life (virtue) remains always connected with a question. In that sense, searching for the good life (virtue) and the intellectual inquiry into its content remains always one and the same thing. That, in my opinion, is what is meant by Socrates' 'Unity of Virtue and Knowledge'.

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