JMJ Marist Brothers

NOTRE DAME OF MARBEL UNIVERSITY

College of Arts and Sciences
Alunan Ave., City of Koronadal, South Cotabato 9506

Rex Bryann C. Zambra PHSC 104 Seminar on Plato/Aristotle

AB-PHILO 4
“Know Thyself”

The intellectual essences of the universe, including concepts like truth,

goodness, and beauty, are, on the other hand, found in the unchanging, eternal, and

perfect realm. These ideal forms can be seen in the real world, such as when we

describe someone as honest, nice, or beautiful. However, these examples are always

limited and imperfect: Only the ideal forms themselves are flawless, indestructible, and

eternal. One of the Platonic corpus' most memorable and compelling images can be

found on the Alcibiades I's final pages.

Socrates has spent a good portion of the conversation attempting to convince

Alcibiades of the significance of self-knowledge and rouse him from his uncritical self-

satisfaction. Socrates makes the analogy between the eye and the soul in an effort to

explain how self-knowledge is gained. If we want to see with our own eyes, we need to

use some kind of mirror in the visual realm. Because the pupil reflects images back to

the observer, the eye itself can function as a kind of mirror. Our eye can eventually learn

to see itself by looking directly into the eye of another person—the very thing it is.

Socrates asserts that self-knowledge follows the same structure of self-reflexivity. A

soul must also "look" outside of itself toward something that reflects back what it truly is

in order to know itself. By looking at another soul, we accomplish this. A soul must also
 JMJ Marist Brothers
NOTRE DAME OF MARBEL UNIVERSITY
College of Arts and Sciences
Alunan Ave., City of Koronadal, South Cotabato 9506

focus on the rational and intellectual part of another soul, which is the best and most

divine part, just as the eye must focus specifically on a pupil, the "best" part of the eye.

Therefore, we can see that being aware of things that are specific to the

individual is an essential component of self-knowledge. In his emphasis on the

importance of being aware of one's ignorance, Socrates explicitly states this, and he

also demonstrates it through his various efforts to make Alcibiades aware of the flawed

nature of his desires, ambitions, and values. Alcibiades must, at the very least, come to

terms with who he is as a person and why his current character will, in the end, prevent

him from achieving his objectives. Dialogue gives us a chance to understand not only

who we are now but also who we could be in the future. Socrates is the last person to

assert omniscience or perfection, but he is aware that he is in a better state than

Alcibiades.

There are additional reasons to believe that self-awareness is impractical. First of

all, the quest for self-knowledge is inherently problematic due to the issue of self-

reflexivity—the inability to actually see ourselves as an object in the same way that

others do. Since what we receive when we look toward another eye or soul is an image

or reflection of ourselves rather than the original reality, Socrates' analogy demonstrates

his awareness of this issue.