Alcibiades II
120 discussion questions for the 2026 Diotimos reading edition of Alcibiades II, with Stephanus references from 138a to 151c.
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Questions for discussion
Prayer, foolishness, and madness12 questions+
What does Alcibiades' gloomy appearance invite Socrates to examine?→ Why might deciding what to pray for be the greatest matter of all?→ What follows from the gods granting some prayers but refusing others?→ How can someone pray for harm while sincerely seeking good?→ Why does Socrates choose Oedipus as his first example?→ What distinguishes praying for relief from calling down a curse?→ Does calling Oedipus mad answer Socrates' concern about prayer?→ Is madness the opposite of wisdom in the same sense as foolishness?→ Must a person be either wise or foolish, with no condition between?→ Can one thing have more than one opposite?→ What does calling most citizens mad reveal about the argument?→ Does ordinary civic life refute the claim that foolishness is madness?→
Distinctions and practical wisdom12 questions+
What does the example of sore eyes clarify about kinds of illness?→ Why does reversing a true statement sometimes make it false?→ What role does shared attention play in finding an answer?→ How can illnesses differ while still belonging to one general kind?→ Why appeal to physicians when explaining these differences?→ What does the example of craftsmen add to the medical analogy?→ Is madness presented as a different kind or a greater degree of folly?→ How can flattering names conceal a person's foolishness?→ Does renaming folly change how we judge or treat it?→ What has been gained by returning to the question of who is wise?→ Why define wisdom through knowing what to do and say?→ Could someone know what ought to be done and still act badly?→
Ambition and the costs of success12 questions+
How do ordinary mistaken prayers differ from Oedipus' curse?→ What does the imagined divine offer reveal about Alcibiades' ambition?→ Why does Alcibiades assume anyone would welcome such power?→ What does refusing power at the cost of life reveal about its value?→ Why is harmful use a further reason to refuse a gift?→ What must we know before accepting something we desire?→ How does the story of Archelaus link political desire with love?→ Does obtaining a tyranny fulfil the desire that first prompted it?→ Why include the suffering of apparently successful generals?→ How do the examples of children complicate the meaning of good fortune?→ Why do people keep seeking gifts whose dangers they recognise?→ Does later regret show that the original desire was unreasonable?→
Safe prayer and useful ignorance12 questions+
How does blaming the gods obscure responsibility for our own suffering?→ What does the poet leave to Zeus to decide?→ Why ask the god to refuse some of the very things we pray for?→ Why does Alcibiades find ignorance more dangerous after this prayer?→ When does a prayer become indistinguishable from a curse?→ Why does Socrates resist condemning ignorance without qualification?→ What would show that ignorance can benefit someone?→ Why does Alcibiades object to even mentioning the deeds of Orestes?→ Is ignorance of what is best always an evil?→ Why make Pericles the target in the imagined example?→ How could failing to recognise someone prevent a wicked action?→ Does beneficial ignorance make its possessor a better person?→
Expertise and good counsel12 questions+
Why might knowledge usually harm a person who lacks wisdom?→ Must action begin with knowledge or a belief that one knows?→ What does political dependence on advisers require of those advisers?→ What standard separates the few wise people from the foolish many?→ How does knowing when to advise differ from knowing how to advise?→ Why does knowing how long to wage war matter to military wisdom?→ What must be known before punishment can be judged beneficial?→ Is what is best always the same as what is beneficial?→ Can the same wisdom guide a city and a private individual?→ What does it mean to know what is best within a particular art?→ Why does excellence in an art fail to establish personal wisdom?→ What is missing from a community composed entirely of experts?→
Knowledge needs direction12 questions+
Who should decide when and towards whom an expert's skills are used?→ How can professional pride distort a person's political judgement?→ Must what is best for an art also be best for its practitioner?→ How might reliance on opinion produce public disorder?→ What makes an action useful rather than merely well executed?→ Why does Socrates ask whether Alcibiades still agrees?→ What supports the claim that most people miss what is best?→ Is knowing nothing really preferable to acting without wisdom?→ Does the argument support withholding knowledge or improving education?→ Why compare the soul's need for knowledge with a patient's need for care?→ What does the pilot image explain that the physician image does not?→ How can good fortune magnify the errors of an unguided life?→
Poetry, interpretation, and perplexity12 questions+
Why might having many skills leave a person pulled in many directions?→ What troubles Alcibiades about the phrase knowing crafts badly?→ Why does Socrates claim that poets speak in riddles?→ What would motivate a poet to conceal wisdom?→ Does calling Homer wise settle how his words should be understood?→ How does Socrates' change of wording alter the claim about Margites?→ Does the interpretation reveal the poet's meaning or impose an argument?→ Why infer poor judgement from knowledge proving harmful?→ What makes Alcibiades willing to trust the preceding arguments?→ Is Alcibiades' changing mind a failure or a sign of learning?→ What has changed when Socrates repeats the imagined divine offer?→ Does admitting uncertainty make Alcibiades better prepared to pray?→
Spartan prayer and Athenian display12 questions+
What sort of wisdom does Socrates attribute to the poet's prayer?→ Does it matter whether the Spartans learned their prayer from a poet?→ Why does the Spartan prayer avoid naming particular achievements?→ What distinction might there be between noble things and good things?→ Does Spartan good fortune establish that their prayer is better?→ How does divine freedom complicate judging a prayer by its results?→ What assumptions lead the Athenians to consult Ammon after defeat?→ Why do the Athenians emphasise the expense of their religious offerings?→ What does their complaint about Spartan sacrifices reveal about piety?→ How does the oracle challenge the Athenians' account of divine favour?→ Why does Socrates identify reverent speech with the Spartan prayer?→ What could make a prayer ill-omened even if its words sounded devout?→
The soul, the gods, and the teacher12 questions+
What does the rejection of Trojan sacrifices add to the oracle's lesson?→ Why compare a god swayed by gifts to a base moneylender?→ What changes when the soul becomes the measure of religious conduct?→ Why can elaborate ritual fail to reveal a person's moral condition?→ How are justice and wisdom connected in Socrates' account?→ Does Alcibiades agree from understanding or from deference to the god?→ Why does Socrates recommend silence rather than a revised prayer?→ How does calling Alcibiades high-minded recall the earlier names for folly?→ What must Alcibiades learn before approaching gods and people rightly?→ Why does Socrates identify the teacher through his care for Alcibiades?→ How does the mist over the eyes become an image of the soul's condition?→ Does readiness to obey a teacher already amount to moral improvement?→
The wreath and the dialogue as a whole12 questions+
Is postponing the sacrifice an achievement or an unfinished task?→ What does crowning Socrates express about Alcibiades' changed priorities?→ Why does Alcibiades still make the hoped-for day depend on the gods?→ What does the image of stormy waves reveal about Socrates' position?→ How might the desire to defeat other lovers complicate Socrates' care?→ Has the danger raised at the beginning been resolved by the ending?→ How has the account of wisdom developed across the dialogue?→ How has Alcibiades' understanding of a welcome gift changed?→ Why can the poet offer a safe prayer while Alcibiades is told to wait?→ How does useful ignorance differ from the knowledge needed to live well?→ How does Socrates' final storm compare with the unguided person's storm?→ What evidence would show that Alcibiades has begun to become better?→