Jörg Hardy
Jenseits der Täuschungen – Selbsterkenntnis und Selbstbestimmung mit Sokrates
1. Edition 2011
465 pages
ISBN 978-3-89971-650-4
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Book
This book is both a study about the Socratic-Platonic conception of a good life, and an analytical study on self-knowledge, self-determination, and moral motivation. In the first part of his book, the author provides a detailed analysis of arguments of the Apology, Protagoras, Laches, Meno, Gorgias, Charmides, Republic, and Phaedo. For Socrates, the life we ought to live is the good life (or happiness, eudaimonia), the life we want to live – once we know what it means to live a good life. The good life requires the knowledge about human well-being, which is to be acquired by way of questioning ourselves and examining our and others’ beliefs. An agent who possesses this knowledge pursues three general, supreme goals: she wants to know the particular action, which is—all-things-considered—in a present situation the best means to her happiness, she wants to act on her knowledge, and she does not want to harm other people. Hardy defends a non-reductive reading of Socratic intellectualism: The knowledge about human well-being is a comprehensive—both theoretical, and practical—knowledge, which encompasses all the relevant mental capacities and abilities of a person. In the second part of the book, the author outlines a theory of self-knowledge, self-determination, and moral motivation on the basis of his interpretation of the Socratic conception of virtue.
