Ancient Philosophy

Volume 42, Issue 2, Fall 2022

Georgia Sermamoglou-Soulmaidi
Pages 353-366

Plato’s Alcibiades on Self-Knowledge and the Forms

This paper aims to shed light on a difficult passage from Plato’s Alcibiades, in which Socrates presents an analogy between vision and knowledge. It argues that we can make sense of some puzzling Socratic claims if we acknowledge that the analogy points to the Theory of Forms. In urging Alcibiades to come to know himself, then, Socrates is urging him to come to know the Forms.