Berger, David J.
(2006)
Inhabiting the Epistemic Frame of Mind: Plato's Protagoras and the Socratic Denial of Akrasia.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Socrates is said to have thought that what is responsible for seeming cases of akrasia is ignorance. He also seems to have freed himself, in his own life, from the distinctive kind of inner resistance that plagues the akratic. But if ignorance is responsible for seeming cases of akrasia, how, if at all, does this ignorance differ from other kinds of ignorance? And how could Socrates have possessed the kind of serene self-control that according to one plausible reconstruction of his own views could only belong to a person with the kind of knowledge that Socrates claimed not to have? In this dissertation I try to shed light on these questions and on Plato's _Protagoras_ by presenting my own Socratic-Platonic account of akratic behavior and tracing the correspondences between my account and Plato's text—the whole text, not just the most relevant part of it (352a-359a). The core idea of my account is the concept of a knowledge-oriented mode of thinking, feeling, and acting: the 'epistemic frame of mind'. To fail to inhabit this frame of mind with regard to the activity of living a human life is, I suggest, to suffer from a kind of ignorance, while to fully inhabit this frame of mind with regard to this activity, though it is not yet to possess the kind of knowledge that properly governs a human life, is nevertheless to free oneself from the kind of inner resistance that plagues the akratic.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
|
| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
|
| ETD Committee: |
| Title | Member | Email Address | Pitt Username | ORCID |
|---|
| Committee Chair | Allen, James | | | | | Committee Member | Conant, James | | | | | Committee Member | Moss, Jessica | | | | | Committee Member | Thompson, Michael | | | |
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| Date: |
17 March 2006 |
| Date Type: |
Completion |
| Defense Date: |
2 September 2005 |
| Approval Date: |
17 March 2006 |
| Submission Date: |
19 November 2005 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Philosophy |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Plato; Socrates; weakness of the will |
| Other ID: |
http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-11192005-122814/, etd-11192005-122814 |
| Date Deposited: |
10 Nov 2011 20:05 |
| Last Modified: |
15 Nov 2016 13:51 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9720 |
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