might agree with Critias that temperance, and all the other virtues, are kinds of knowledge. This allows Plato to use one of his favorite tricks: he diverts the discussion away from virtue, toward a more general inquiry into the nature of knowledge. As I said, we go from talking ethics to talking epistemology. On the other hand, in other dialogues we’ve seen suggestions that for Socrates virtue is the same thing as knowledge. So perhaps this is no diversion at all. Plato is simply working through the implications of this Socratic thesis. If virtue is knowledge, then discussion of virtue and
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