Socratic Moral Psychology

Description: Socrates' moral psychology is widely thought to be 'intellectualist' in the sense that, for Socrates, every ethical failure to do what is best is exclusively the result of some cognitive failure to apprehend what is best. Until publication of this 2010 book, the view that, for Socrates, emotions and desires have no role to play in causing such failure went unchallenged. This book argues against the orthodox view of Socratic intellectualism and offers in its place a comprehensive alternative account that explains why Socrates believed that emotions, desires and appetites can influence human motivation and lead to error. Thomas C. Brickhouse and Nicholas D. Smith defend the study of Socrates' philosophy and offer an alternative interpretation of Socratic moral psychology. Their novel account of Socrates' conception of virtue and how it is acquired shows that Socratic moral psychology is considerably more sophisticated than scholars have supposed.

Review: "...Overall the book has much to recommend it, not least of which is the lively and engaging style in which the authors have managed to express what is... provided scholarly and intelligent arguments for what remains a challenging and unorthodox thesis. The book deserves to be widely read." --Scott Carson, Ohio University, Bryn Mawr Classical Review "...The primary audience for this book is, consequently, scholars and students invested in Socratic philosophy... One feature of the present book that scholars will thus eagerly welcome is its deliberate defense of Socratic studies as a viable research program... SMP includes an appendix by way of supplementing the text-based defense of their decision. The book also offers a sustained discussion of what is perhaps the least developed element of intellectualist interpretations, namely, how it is that, for Socrates, harming another necessarily harms oneself... thorough explanations of how, given their re-interpretation of Socratic intellectualism, Socrates' moral psychology is to be distinguished from the moral psychologies of Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics... The volume includes a thorough bibliography, general index, and an index locorum." --Patrick Mooney, John Carroll University, Philosophy in Review

Contents: Introduction; Acknowledgements; 1. Apology of Socratic studies; 2. Motivational intellectualism; 3. The 'prudential paradox'; 4. Wrongdoing and damage to the soul; 5. Educating the appetites and passions; 6. Virtue intellectualism; 7. Socrates and his intellectual heirs: Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics; Appendix. Is Plato's Gorgias consistent with the other early or Socratic dialogues?; Bibliography of works cited; Index of passages; General index.