Hyeok Yu

Plato's Charmides has generally been regarded as an aporetic dialogue, which ends with an apparently negative conclusion, especially concerning the questions of the possibility of knowledge of oneself ('knowledge of knowledge') and its beneficial nature. Through close analysis of each and every step of the argument I argue that the dialogue does suggest positive answers to these questions. In order to produce a full commentary, special attention is paid not only to the argument itself but also to the dramatic features of the dialogue and their philosophical implications (the precise analysis of the role of self-knowledge within the context of the dialectical procedure also clarifies the unity of the Charmides).