Greater and smaller · Lexicon

From the book

Charmides

Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordMeizon and elatton express greater and smaller; pleon and elatton also more and less.
In the CharmidesAt 168b Socrates compares knowledge's being of something with the greater's being greater than something.
In this edition“The greater” can sound like the name of a Platonic Form in English.
A place to readGreater requires smaller as correlate; self-comparison reverses the same relation.

Meaning

Meizon and elatton express greater and smaller; pleon and elatton also more and less. These comparatives require a correlate, often supplied by a genitive. Their logical importance here lies in what occupies each side of the comparison, not merely in naming two contrary qualities.

Use in the book

At 168b Socrates compares knowledge's being of something with the greater's being greater than something. If it is greater, its correlate is smaller. Suppose an alleged greater is greater than other greater things and itself, while not greater than the ordinary objects of greater things. The self-comparison entails being both greater and smaller than itself (168c).

This is not the harmless claim that one object can be great in one context and small in another. It is the repeated identity of the correlate that creates the incompatibility. The argument adds more/less, heavier/lighter and older/younger, displaying a family of analogous relations rather than relying on one size example.

At 168e Socrates treats magnitudes and quantities as wholly resistant to the relevant self-relation. But he immediately distinguishes capacities such as sight and motion, about which judgments may differ. Accordingly the comparative reductio serves as a test case for the broader problem; it does not automatically settle whether knowing can be reflexive.

Places to read

168b–cGreater requires smaller as correlate; self-comparison reverses the same relation
168c–e2Parallel comparisons and the distinction between impossible and disputed cases

Translation in this edition

“The greater” can sound like the name of a Platonic Form in English. Here the immediate function is predicative and relational. The argument itself does not require identifying it with a separately existing Form of Greatness.

ἐλάττων

Attested: ἔλαττον / ἐλάττονός (elatton / elattonos). Smaller or less; the correlate of greater in the test of whether a relative can have its power toward itself. References: 168c, 168b. Lexical identification: lemma: ἐλάττων. See Greater and smaller.

μέγεθος

Attested: μέγεθος / μεγέθη (megethos / megethē). Size or stature, when Charmides’ appearance is admired; magnitudes, in the later class of quantities for which the examined self-relations are impossible. References: 154c, 168e. Lexical identification: lemma: μέγεθος. See Greater and smaller.

μείζων

Attested: μεῖζόν / μεῖζον / μειζόνων / μείζω (meizon / meizon / meizonōn / meizō). Greater or larger; a comparative relation requiring something smaller as its correlate, so that a thing greater than itself would also have to be smaller than itself. References: 168b, 168c. Lexical identification: lemma: μείζων. See Greater and smaller.