Charmides

In this early dialogue, Socrates engages the beautiful, promising youth Charmides and his guardian in a subtle inquiry into the nature of temperance or self-restraint, one of the classical virtues, testing definition after definition without reaching a settled answer. Graceful and searching, the Charmides showcases the Socratic method of question and refutation while raising deep puzzles about self-knowledge and moderation. Brief and elegant, it is a fine example of Plato’s early style and his fascination with defining the virtues. Thoughtful and open-ended, the Charmides invites readers into the genuine difficulty of understanding a quality everyone praises but no one can quite define.