A Study Of Plato’s Charmides Moderation Thought

"s(?)phrosun(?)" is an important virtue with multiple meanings in ancient Greece.It experienced a process of continuous evolution and enriching its connotation from Homer era to city-state period.Plato made a comprehensive and detailed discussion on the virtue of "s(?)phrosun(?)".As one of the four main virtues,temperance occupies a very important position in Plato’s system of virtue.But compared with other virtues,it has not attracted enough attention in academic circles.Therefore,this paper systematically combs and studies Plato’s thought system of restraint by taking the dialogue Charmides as the starting point,supplemented by Symposium and Republic as the two dialogues.On this basis,the research also summarizes and analyzes Aristotle’s development and innovation of Plato’s thought of moderation.This paper is divided into four parts.The first part mainly introduces the cultural and historical background of moderation thought in Charmides.Firstly,this paper analyzes the etymology of "s(?)phrosun(?)" and the development process of its concept,and examines the multiple meanings of the concept in ancient Greece and the process of its development and change.Secondly,this paper expounds the understanding of the interpretation of "s(?)phrosun(?)" and the reasons for its translation under the background of Plato’s dialogue.Thirdly,this paper introduces the historical background,the relationship between the main characters and the drama scene of the dialogue.The second part discusses the main content of moderation in the dialogue of Charmides.This paper examines the seven different definitions of abstinence proposed by the three main characters in the dialogue in detail.It includes two definitions given by Charmides himself and the definition he heard from Creedia,that is "moderation is doing your own thing".In turn,this section points out that Charmides definition of s(?)phrosun(?) is mainly limited to common and customary.He had no desire to dig deeper into the meaning of moderation.In terms of the four definitions of s(?)phrosun(?) given by Creedia,he undoubtedly deepened his understanding of moderation in the debate with Socrates.On this basis,Socrates gives the final definition of s(?)phrosun(?): "Temperance is what one knows and does not know ".Based on this,this paper believes that in the Charmides,the seven definitions are progressive with the deepening of the debate in the dialogue from ordinary customary moderation to self-cognition one.Although the discussion ended in no result,these definitions covered almost all the connotations of moderation.Based on the above discussion,the third part makes a comparative analysis of the moderation in Plato’s three dialogues: Charmides,Symposium and the Republic.In this part,on the basis of the detailed elaboration and analysis of the related thoughts in Symposium and the Republic,we return to the dialogue of Charmides and study Plato’s thought of moderation from a comparative perspective.The fourth part further expounds Aristotle’s inheritance and development of Plato’s thought of moderation in Nicomak Ethics.This paper mainly discusses Aristotle’s decomposition of Plato’s temperance virtue from three aspects of "moderation","wisdom" and "self-control " as well as the two dimensions of moral virtue and rational virtue.The relationship between the two virtues of moderation and wisdom and the intermediate qualities of self-control is studied as well.