To the theoretical foundations of temperance in Plato’s Charmides (158e-160d)

The aim of the present article is to examine how the debate is constituted in the context of a Platonic dialogue, in order to approach a virtue -in this case, the virtue of temperance-ontologically and epistemologically and to specialize its general definition in terms of how it is presented to a particular person.Our reflections are structured in two subchapters, in which the analytical method meets the method of synthetic judgments.In terms of content, we would note that, focusing on passage 158e-160d, we attempt a systematic reading of the virtue of temperance and, at the same time, we examine the origins of Socrates' interrogative method with a view to the speculative construction of its definition.It is worth noting that the passage we examine is crucial from a methodological point of view, as it reveals the terms on which the Socratic dialectic works.