Simple-mindedness · Lexicon

From the book

Charmides

Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordEuēthēs can describe an uncomplicated or ingenuous character and, in a depreciatory setting, a simpleton.
In the CharmidesWhen “doing one’s own business” has produced implausible examples, Socrates declines to suppose that its author was a simpleton and asks whether Charmides heard it from a fool.
In this editionThe supplied “simpleton” and “simple-minded” preserve the lexical connection without making the words identical.
A place to readSocrates refuses to treat the saying’s author as a simpleton and asks whether its source was foolish.

Meaning

Euēthēs can describe an uncomplicated or ingenuous character and, in a depreciatory setting, a simpleton. The related euēthikos at 175c characterizes the partners as easy or naive. Ēlithios is more directly foolish. The local irony matters more than a derivation treated as a definition.

Use in the book

When “doing one’s own business” has produced implausible examples, Socrates declines to suppose that its author was a simpleton and asks whether Charmides heard it from a fool. The boy’s answer, that the source was thought very wise, prepares the pressure on Critias. The contrast is between an apparently foolish literal interpretation and the reputation of the person behind the saying. At the close Socrates applies the related adjective to the inquirers themselves. They have made exceptionally generous concessions, and the personified inquiry still fails to discover the truth. Their simplicity is associated with not being hard to handle; it is not offered as their intellectual virtue or as proof that the concessions were sound. The shift from a definition’s defended author to its accommodating examiners belongs to the dialogue’s self-mocking account of failure.

Places to read

162a–162b2Socrates refuses to treat the saying’s author as a simpleton and asks whether its source was foolish.
175c–175dThe partners become the simple-minded and tractable parties in the personification of the inquiry.

Translation in this edition

The supplied “simpleton” and “simple-minded” preserve the lexical connection without making the words identical. “Simple” here is not a metaphysical predicate meaning uncompounded.

εὐήθης

Attested: εὐήθης (euēthēs). Simple-minded or naive; Socrates says the author of the formula cannot have been so simple as to intend the untenable literal interpretation. References: 162b. Lexical identification: lemma: εὐήθης. See Simple-mindedness.

εὐηθικός

Attested: εὐηθικῶν (euēthikōn). Naive or easy-going; Socrates ironically describes the disputants’ readiness to make generous concessions that nevertheless fail to secure a beneficial definition. References: 175c. Lexical identification: lemma: εὐηθικός. See Simple-mindedness.

ἠλίθιος

Attested: ἠλιθίου (ēlithiou). Foolish or stupid; Socrates questions whether the source of Charmides’ definition could really have meant its absurd literal interpretation. References: 162b. Lexical identification: lemma: ἠλίθιος. See Simple-mindedness.

σκληρός

Attested: σκληρῶν (sklērōn). Hard or difficult to deal with; negated in Socrates’ ironic description of the disputants as accommodating rather than resistant to concessions. References: 175d. Lexical identification: lemma: σκληρός. See Simple-mindedness.

σκληρῶν (sklērōn)

Hard or exacting; contrasted with the interlocutors' easygoing generosity toward the argument. References: 175d. Lemma: σκληρός. See Simple-mindedness.