The Structure of Courage in the Laches, Meno and Protagoras
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Jakub Jirsa
Abstract
The following article provides an interpretation of the structure of courage in Plato’s Laches, Meno and Protagoras. I argue that these dialogues present courage (ἀνδρεία) in the soul according to the same scheme: that there is a normatively neutral psychic state which is informed by the knowledge of good and evil. The knowledge (ἐπιστήμη) which informs this normatively neutral psychic state is called practical wisdom (which Plato refers to as φρόνησις or sometimes σοφία). This interpretation seems to negate the claim that virtue is knowledge. I will show, however, that this is not a contradiction and that virtue is in fact knowledge, despite the complex moral psychology of courage. Finally, I will argue that the conception of courage in the Republic addresses some of the problems posed by the discussion of courage in the above-mentioned dialogues.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- In memoriam Anna Maria Ioppolo
- Ricordo di Pierluigi Donini
- Special Section: Spécificités de la causalité médicale dans l’Antiquité grecque et romaine/Particularities of Medical Causality in Greek and Roman Antiquity; Editors: Catherine Darbo-Peschanski, Cristina Viano
- Spécificités de la causalité médicale dans l’Antiquité grecque et romaine
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- Medical Empiricism and Causation
- Aition et prophasis chez Hippocrate et Galien : deux mots pour une même cause ?
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- Aux limites de l’explication : le rôle de la sympathie chez Galien
- Articles
- The Structure of Courage in the Laches, Meno and Protagoras
- Posidonius et le traité d’Albinus Sur les incorporels
- Notes
- Filone di Larissa e l’Assioco
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- In memoriam Anna Maria Ioppolo
- Ricordo di Pierluigi Donini
- Special Section: Spécificités de la causalité médicale dans l’Antiquité grecque et romaine/Particularities of Medical Causality in Greek and Roman Antiquity; Editors: Catherine Darbo-Peschanski, Cristina Viano
- Spécificités de la causalité médicale dans l’Antiquité grecque et romaine
- Introduction. La technê et la connaissance des causes : Aristote et le modèle de la médecine
- Medical Empiricism and Causation
- Aition et prophasis chez Hippocrate et Galien : deux mots pour une même cause ?
- Medical and Philosophical Causality of Nutrition. About some Hippocratic Issues
- Galen and the Formal Cause
- Aux limites de l’explication : le rôle de la sympathie chez Galien
- Articles
- The Structure of Courage in the Laches, Meno and Protagoras
- Posidonius et le traité d’Albinus Sur les incorporels
- Notes
- Filone di Larissa e l’Assioco