From the book
Alcibiades II
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordThe list moves from blunt terms for stupidity or stupefaction to descriptions that can sound charitable or complimentary: idiot, thunderstruck, great-souled, simple, innocent, inexperienced and tongue-tied.
- In Alcibiades IIAfter abandoning the identification of all unintelligence with madness, Socrates describes people as having different portions of unintelligence.
- In this editionThe edition renders euphēmotata as “most auspicious,” keeping it in the same family as the religious speech of 143d and 149b.
- A place to readIdiot and thunderstruck precede the turn to auspicious naming; great-souled and simple begin the flattering sequence.
Meaning
The list moves from blunt terms for stupidity or stupefaction to descriptions that can sound charitable or complimentary: idiot, thunderstruck, great-souled, simple, innocent, inexperienced and tongue-tied. These are names applied to persons, not seven demonstrated psychological species.
Use in the book
After abandoning the identification of all unintelligence with madness, Socrates describes people as having different portions of unintelligence. The largest portion earns the name mad. Those with less receive the first two labels; those wishing to use the most auspicious names offer the following five. The difference between the seven labels and the five expressly auspicious ones matters: calling the whole sequence complimentary would erase the joke’s movement.
The polite names do not merely substitute modern clinical categories for an offensive one. Their ordinary positive or mitigating associations allow Socrates to expose the flattering relabelling of a defect. “Great-souled” is the clearest trap for an ambitious young man. “Simple” can suggest goodness of character or lack of sophistication; “innocent” absence of malice; “inexperienced” lack of practice; “tongue-tied” incapacity to speak. Their grouping is rhetorically pointed without proving that all such traits are morally or intellectually identical.
Two labels return. The Athenian reasoning about expensive offerings is “simple” at 149e. Alcibiades’ unwillingness to adopt the Spartan prayer is predicted from his greatness of soul at 150c, where Socrates explicitly recalls its place among the names of unintelligence. These recurrences make the early comic list part of the final religious and educational judgment.
The register defines each label separately because its lexical meaning remains different from the use imposed by the list. This article explains the structure that connects them. Neither definition licenses using the dialogue as a contemporary classification of mental illness.
Places to read
- 140cIdiot and thunderstruck precede the turn to auspicious naming; great-souled and simple begin the flattering sequence.
- 140dInnocent, inexperienced and tongue-tied complete the sequence.
- 149e“Simple” returns in the criticism of a transactional view of sacrifice.
- 150cGreatness of soul becomes a direct ironic description of Alcibiades.
Translation in this edition
The edition renders euphēmotata as “most auspicious,” keeping it in the same family as the religious speech of 143d and 149b. “Kindest” would make the local politeness intelligible but weaken this larger connection.
Source note
Supplied note 7, 140c–d, and notes 37–382, 149e and 150c. The last three labels begin in 140d. The noun megalopsychia at 150c returns to the adjective megalopsychos at 140c; that local ironic relation takes priority over any later technical portrait of magnanimity.