From the book
Charmides
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Draughts
τὸ πεττευτικόν (to petteutikon); πεττευτικόν (petteutikon)
To petteutikon means what belongs to playing a board game with pieces, or the relevant skill.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordTo petteutikon means what belongs to playing a board game with pieces, or the relevant skill.
- In the CharmidesAt 174b Socrates asks whether the hypothetical all-knowing person is made happy by the knowledge of draughts.
- In this edition“Draughts?
- A place to readDraughts proposed and rejected as the knowledge chiefly making the complete knower happy.
Meaning
To petteutikon means what belongs to playing a board game with pieces, or the relevant skill. “Draughts” is a conventional approximate English rendering; it should not identify the ancient game with every rule of modern draughts or checkers. The noun petteia is a useful lemma-family lookup term rather than the displayed form here.
Use in the book
At 174b Socrates asks whether the hypothetical all-knowing person is made happy by the knowledge of draughts. Critias responds with incredulity. The question is deliberately deflationary: an impressive inventory of past, present and future truths still leaves us needing to select which knowledge contributes to living well.
The example need not be a dismissal of the game as involving no real competence. Its point depends on acknowledging a skill whose possession, however genuine, is insufficient to explain happiness. Calculation follows and is rejected too; health receives a stronger claim before good and bad is finally named.
The board-game association also bears on the earlier verb for taking back a claim, treated under Retraction. Any sustained reading of the dialogue as a game in which Socrates traps his opponents is interpretive. The text's immediate lesson is narrower: mastery can be genuine without being the decisive knowledge of value.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
“Draughts? What draughts?” preserves Critias' abrupt reaction. The translation uses a recognizable game name without providing evidence for an exact reconstruction of its rules.
πεττευτικός
Attested: πεττευτικόν (petteutikon). The skill or subject matter of playing a board game with pieces, conventionally “draughts”; an expertise Critias rejects as the knowledge that chiefly makes a person happy. References: 174b. Lexical identification: lemma: πεττευτικός. See Draughts.
From the book
Alcibiades I
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Draughts
τὰ πεττευτικά (ta petteutika); πεττεύειν (petteuein)
Πεττεύειν is to play a board game with pieces; τὰ πεττευτικά concerns what belongs to skilled play.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordΠεττεύειν is to play a board game with pieces; τὰ πεττευτικά concerns what belongs to skilled play.
- In Alcibiades IAt 110e Socrates denies that the many can teach what counts as good play and what does not, even though the subject is less serious than justice.
- In this editionThe source's note compares Republic 333b as another use of the game to illustrate specialized competence.
- A place to readInability to teach competent board play contrasts with the many’s acknowledged teaching of ordinary Greek.
Meaning
Πεττεύειν is to play a board game with pieces; τὰ πεττευτικά concerns what belongs to skilled play. “Draughts” is the conventional rendering here, not a warrant to reconstruct the ancient game as exactly identical to modern checkers.
Use in the book
At 110e Socrates denies that the many can teach what counts as good play and what does not, even though the subject is less serious than justice. Alcibiades replies that they can teach things more serious than draughts, notably speaking Greek. That reply forces Socrates to distinguish the crowd's successful informal teaching in one area from its lack of expertise in another.
The game's role is therefore comparative, not simply dismissive. A relatively trivial subject can demand specialized competence that general familiarity does not supply. The passage does not prove that knowledge of justice is impossible for many people; it challenges the assumption that the many's existence as a group makes them reliable teachers of any subject.
Places to read
- 110e–111aInability to teach competent board play contrasts with the many’s acknowledged teaching of ordinary Greek
Translation in this edition
The source's note compares Republic 333b as another use of the game to illustrate specialized competence. The present argument supplies no rules of play, so the English name should remain an approximate identification.
πεττεύω / πεττευτικός
Attested: πεττευτικά (petteutika; 110e). At 110e: Good and bad board-game play, which the many cannot competently teach. Lexical identification: family label: πεττεύω / πεττευτικός. See Draughts.