The Failure Of Defined Method: Socrates' Confusion Of Virtue Problems

Virtue is the most important thing to Socrates, and he believed that "virtue is knowledge". In order to get virtue knowledge, Socrates pursued its definition actively. This paper is focused on Socrates' definitions of virtues, mainly about courage, temperance and friendship, referring to Plato's three early dialogues:Laches, Charmides and Lysis. Then we can conclude that the main contributions of Socrates are not merely the invention of the method of induction and definition just like what Aristotle had said, but also that he revealed two points: firstly, virtue knowledge is a new kind of knowledge, which belongs to what we call the transcendent field; Secondly, Socrates showed the dialectics made by the misuse of reason in virtue knowledge area. What is more, Socrates found a new way to virtue knowledge.To speak with more details, the paper will unfold as follows:Partâ… is an introduction of Socrates' definition, we will inquire which knowledge can be defined, and which knowledge cannot be defined in Socrates' view. And the latter is what we called virtue knowledge.Partâ…¡will display Socrates' values about above knowledge, in other word, which kind of knowledge is more important or more valuable? And we find that Socrates regarded the knowledge that can't be defined precisely as the more valuable knowledge, on which he spend all his life to explore.Partâ…¢is mainly about the reasons why the virtue knowledge is not able to be gained by means of inductive inference and definition in two angles. From the perspective of virtue itself, the indeterminate of the virtue's object, the complex relationship between virtue and partial virtue, and the limitations of virtue knowledge gained by inductive inference, are the main factors that caused the failures of those definitions; Besides, the other reason is the misuse of rational ability or reason, that is to say, in the practical area the reason is wrongly as experienced use instead of as transcendent use. After so many failures of definitions of above virtues, Socrates sighed that he was ignorant with virtues. However, ignorance itself is also a kind of wisdom and it has a power of warning that human beings should examine their rational abilities and find a path toward virtue knowledge. Partâ…£is an interpretation of Socrates' theory of "the divine monitor ". In fact, the divine monitor is different from god, but a medium between god and human beings, who would dissuade people from making mistakes. And Socrates considered that one can achieve the virtue knowledge if he obeyed the divine monitor's guide and tried to refuse temptations on the way.