Socrates on Knowledge, Virtue, and Happiness

FAIN: FT-264458-19

Nicholas D. Smith
Lewis and Clark College (Portland, OR 97219-8091)

Writing toward the publication of a book that argues for a new interpretation of Socratic virtue, finding happiness through honing a set of practical skills.

A book that articulates the connections Socrates makes (in Plato's early or Socratic dialogues) between knowledge, virtue, and happiness. In this project, I make the case that these connections have been misunderstood in the scholarly literature because scholars have insufficiently understood an important consequence of the Socratic conception of the relevant knowledge as craft or skill. Briefly, the achievement of skill occurs by degrees and with practice. I show how this effects the Socratic view of virtue and happiness, and how these are connected, in a way that is gradable. In the Socratic view, then, our project as human beings is to improve our life skills, our degree of achievement in virtue, and thus the extent to which we can be happy.

Associated Products

Socrates on Self-Improvement: Knowledge, Virtue, and Happiness (Book)
Title: Socrates on Self-Improvement: Knowledge, Virtue, and Happiness
Author: Nicholas D. Smith
Abstract: What model of knowledge does Socrates use? In this book, Nicholas D. Smith argues that it is akin to knowledge of a craft that is acquired by degrees, rather than straightforward knowledge of facts. He contends that a failure to recognize and identify this model, and attempts to ground ethical success in contemporary accounts of propositional or informational knowledge, have led to distortions of Socrates' philosophical mission to improve himself and others in the domain of practical ethics. He shows that the model of craft-knowledge makes sense of a number of issues scholars have struggled to understand, and makes a case for attributing to Socrates a very sophisticated and plausible view of the improvability of the human condition.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/socrates-on-self-improvement-knowledge-virtue-and-happiness/oclc/1264703066&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: Worldcat.org
Secondary URL: https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/philosophy/classical-philosophy/socrates-self-improvement-knowledge-virtue-and-happiness?format=HB
Secondary URL Description: Cambridge University Press
Access Model: ebook and print
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 978-1-316-5155
Copy sent to NEH?: No

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