[138a]
Well now, when one is a man, and does not know the good and bad men, one surely cannot know whether one is good or wicked oneself, since one is a man also oneself?He granted this.And is “not knowing oneself” being temperate,1 or not being temperate?Not being temperate.So “knowing oneself” is being temperate?I agree, he said.So this is the message, it seems, of the Delphic inscription—that one is to practise temperance and justice.It seems so.And it is by this same art that we know also how to punish rightly?Yes.Then that whereby we know how to punish rightly
1 Cf. Charmides(Introduction and 164)for the connection in thought and language between temperance and self-knowledge.
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