Skip to main content
Log in

Socrates on How Wrongdoing Damages the Soul

  • Published:
The Journal of Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

There has been little scholarly attention given to explaining exactly how and why Socrates thinks that wrongdoing damages the soul. But there is more than a simple gap in the literature here, we shall argue. The most widely accepted view of Socratic moral psychology, we claim, actually leaves this well-known feature of Socrates’ philosophy absolutely inexplicable. In the first section of this paper, we rehearse this view of Socratic moral psychology, and explain its inadequacy on the issue of the damaging consequences of wrongdoing. We then go on to provide our own account of the way in which injustice damages the soul, and then draw conclusions about how Socratic moral psychology should be understood.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas C. Brickhouse.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Brickhouse, T.C., Smith, N.D. Socrates on How Wrongdoing Damages the Soul. J Ethics 11, 337–356 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10892-006-9011-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10892-006-9011-2

Keywords

Navigation