Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: There is perhaps no philosophical thesis that has more often been thought to be most central to or most distinctive of the philosophy of Socrates in Plato’s dialogues1 than the thesis that wisdom is sufficient for happiness. The sufficiency thesis amounts to the claim that no matter how things go in your life, if you are wise, then you are happy, either because being wise somehow infallibly gives you the resources to become happy or because happiness just amounts to being wise. Hence its centrality for Socrates: The sufficiency thesis explains why Socrates is so interested in wisdom (which is the same as being interested in virtue, according to Socrates) and why he is always trying to acquire it and always trying to persuade others to acquire it, too. But the sufficiency thesis is a deeply counterintuitive one. Aristotle famously wrote that no one would maintain it unless defending a “philosopher’s paradox”.2 Hence its distinctiveness for Socrates: Few others have been willing to go so far. This common portrait of Socrates is appealing but false. The locus classicus for attributing the sufficiency thesis to Socrates is Euthydemus 278–282.3 The interpretation I will challenge is a long-standing one,
Author: Russell E. Jones
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2097059988