The Nature of Courage in Plato’s Laches
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Georgia Sermamoglou-Soulmaidi
Abstract
This paper argues against two commonly held views on the nature of courage and its relationship with virtue in Plato’s Laches. These views are the following: First, Laches’ and Nicias’ accounts of courage should be read as complementary, in the sense that each presents one of the two components of courage. Second, Socrates rejects the unity of virtue he defends in the Protagoras, endorsing instead the view that courage is only a part of virtue. In this paper, I aim to show that the reader of the Laches is invited to endorse Nicias’ unitary understanding of courage as knowledge of good and evil and, as a consequence of this, to grant the unity of virtue.
Award Identifier / Grant number: 2019-050-0503-18645
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Research funding: This research has been co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Social Fund- ESF) through the Operational Programme “Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning” in the context of the project “Reinforcement of Postdoctoral Researchers - 2nd Cycle” (MIS-5033021), implemented by the State Scholarships Foundation (ΙΚΥ).
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© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Blood and the Awareness of Perception. From Early Greek Thought to Plato’s Timaeus
- The Nature of Courage in Plato’s Laches
- Socrates’ Understanding of ‘Protection’ (Boētheia) in His Other-Oriented Ethics: The Case of the Athenians in Plato’s Apology and Gorgias
- The Dispute Over the Part-Whole Puzzle in Aristotelian Hylomorphism and Ackrill’s Problem: The Argument in Metaphysics Z 17, 1041b11-33
- Natural Inseparability in Aristotle, Metaphysics E.1, 1026a14
- Complete Life in the Eudemian Ethics
- Misprinted Representations in Stoicism
- Aristotelian Motives in Middle Platonic Theology. Aristotelian Threads and Categories in the Theory of God in Alcinous’ Didaskalikos
- Three Instances of the Good in Proclus
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Blood and the Awareness of Perception. From Early Greek Thought to Plato’s Timaeus
- The Nature of Courage in Plato’s Laches
- Socrates’ Understanding of ‘Protection’ (Boētheia) in His Other-Oriented Ethics: The Case of the Athenians in Plato’s Apology and Gorgias
- The Dispute Over the Part-Whole Puzzle in Aristotelian Hylomorphism and Ackrill’s Problem: The Argument in Metaphysics Z 17, 1041b11-33
- Natural Inseparability in Aristotle, Metaphysics E.1, 1026a14
- Complete Life in the Eudemian Ethics
- Misprinted Representations in Stoicism
- Aristotelian Motives in Middle Platonic Theology. Aristotelian Threads and Categories in the Theory of God in Alcinous’ Didaskalikos
- Three Instances of the Good in Proclus
