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2 - Enkrateia and the partition of the soul in the Gorgias

from Part I - Transitions to tripartition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2012

By
Louis-André Dorion
Edited by
Rachel Barney ,
Tad Brennan  and
Charles Brittain
Rachel Barney
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Tad Brennan
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Charles Brittain
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
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Summary

This chapter forms part of a wider research project on Xenophon's and Plato's use of the concept of enkrateia. It explores the links between enkrateia and the partition of the soul in the Republic. In the Republic and the Gorgias, the rehabilitation of enkrateia coincides not only with the partition of the soul, but also, apparently, with the recognition of the possibility of akrasia. The correlation in the Republic between partition of the soul and the possibility of akrasia is generally acknowledged, but the existence of this correlation in the Gorgias is far from a matter of consensus. Partition of the soul would explain, paradoxically, both the rehabilitation of the vocabulary of enkrateia, and the impossibility of recognizing enkrateia as a distinct force, the role of which is to control the desires.
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Chapter
Information
Plato and the Divided Self , pp. 33 - 52
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

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