•  15
    Socrates' divine sign: religion, practice, and value in Socratic philosophy (edited book)
    with Pierre Destrée
    Academic Printing &. 2005.
  •  38
    Knowledge
    with Ian Evans
    Polity. 2012.
    Introductions to the theory of knowledge are plentiful, but none introduce students to the most recent debates that exercise contemporary philosophers. Ian Evans and Nicholas D. Smith aim to change that. Their book guides the reader through the standard theories of knowledge while simultaneously using these as a springboard to introduce current debates. Each chapter concludes with a “Current Trends” section pointing the reader to the best literature dominating current philosophical discussion. T…Read more
  •  59
    As a cognitivist about emotions, Socrates takes the fear of death to be a belief that death is a bad thing for the one who dies. Socrates, however, thinks there are reasons for thinking death is not a bad thing at all, and might even be a blessing. So the question considered in this paper is: how would Socrates explain the fact that so many people believe death is bad?
  • Utopian Studies II
    with Michael S. Cummings
    Utopian Studies 1 (1): 130-136. 1990.
  • Utopian Studies Iii & Iv
    with Michael Cummings, Lise Leibacher-Ouvrard, and Utopian Studies
    Upa. 1991.
    To find out more information about Rowman & Littlefield titles please visit us at www.rowmanlittlefield.com
  •  48
    The Bloomsbury companion to Socrates (edited book)
    Continuum. 2013.
    Featuring chapters by leading international scholars in Ancient Philosophy, the is a comprehensive one volume reference to guide to Socrates' thought.
  •  31
    Socrates is one of the most important yet enigmatic philosophers of all time; his fame has endured for centuries despite the fact that he never actually wrote anything. In 399 B.C.E., he was tried on the charge of impiety by the citizens of Athens, convicted by a jury, and sentenced to death (ordered to drink poison derived from hemlock). About these facts there is no disagreement. However, as the sources collected in this book and the scholarly essays that follow them show, several of even the …Read more
  •  9
    Vlastos on the elenchus'
    with Thomas C. Brickhouse
    Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 2 185-96. 1984.
  •  49
    What Makes Socrates a Good Man?
    Journal of the History of Philosophy 28 (2): 169-179. 1990.
  •  30
    The Divine Sign Did Not Oppose Me
    Canadian Journal of Philosophy 16 (3): 511-526. 1986.
    After he has been condemned to death, Socrates spends a few minutes talking to the jurors before he is taken away. First, he rebukes those who voted against him for resorting to using the court to kill him when they could have waited and let nature do the same job very soon anyhow, for Socrates is an old man. He next contrasts the evils to which his accusers have resorted to his own unbending resolve never to resort to shameful actions, even though in this case such things might have saved his l…Read more
  •  30
    Socrates’ Proposed Penalty in Plato’s Apology
    Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 64 (1): 1-18. 1982.
  •  220
    Socrates on Trial
    Princeton University Press. 1990.
    Thomas Brickhouse and Nicholas Smith offer a comprehensive historical and philosophical interpretation of, and commentary on, one of Plato's most widely read works, the Apology of Socrates. Virtually every modern interpretation characterizes some part of what Socrates says in the Apology as purposefully irrelevant or even antithetical to convincing the jury to acquit him at his trial. This book, by contrast, argues persuasively that Socrates offers a sincere and well-reasoned defense against the…Read more
  •  72
    Socrates on How Wrongdoing Damages the Soul
    The Journal of Ethics 11 (4): 337-356. 2007.
    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 th…Read more
  •  55
    Socratic Moral Psychology
    Cambridge University Press. 2010.
    Socrates' moral psychology is widely thought to be 'intellectualist' in the sense that, for Socrates, every ethical failure to do what is best is exclusively the result of some cognitive failure to apprehend what is best. Until publication of this book, the view that, for Socrates, emotions and desires have no role to play in causing such failure went unchallenged. This book argues against the orthodox view of Socratic intellectualism and offers in its place a comprehensive alternative account t…Read more
  • Socratic Moral Psychology
    Cambridge University Press. 2010.
    Socrates' moral psychology is widely thought to be 'intellectualist' in the sense that, for Socrates, every ethical failure to do what is best is exclusively the result of some cognitive failure to apprehend what is best. Until publication of this book, the view that, for Socrates, emotions and desires have no role to play in causing such failure went unchallenged. This book argues against the orthodox view of Socratic intellectualism and offers in its place a comprehensive alternative account t…Read more
  •  215
    Socratic Ignorance and Skepticism
    with Th Brickhouse
    Skepsis: A Journal for Philosophy and Interdisciplinary Research 7. 1996.
    Argues that the Socratic profession of wisdom is not an expression of skepticism. Plato's Socrates claims to know things and says that others also know things. The profession of ignorance is a profession about wisdom, not about any other type of knowledge.
  • Socrates' Gods and the Daimonion
    In Nicholas D. Smith & Paul Woodruff (eds.), Reason and religion in Socratic philosophy, Oxford University Press. pp. 74--88. 2000.
  •  12
  •  2
    Socrates’ Elenctic Mission
    Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 9 131-159. 1991.
  •  135
    Reply to Rowe
    The Journal of Ethics 16 (3): 325-338. 2012.
    In our reply to Rowe, we explain why most of what he criticizes is actually the product of his misunderstanding our argument. We begin by showing that nearly all of his Part 1 misconceives our project by defending a position we never attacked. We then question why Rowe thinks the distinction we make between motivational and virtue intellectualism is unimportant before developing a defense of the consistency of our views about different desires. Next we turn to Rowe’s criticisms of our account of…Read more
  •  118
    Socrates and the Laws of Athens
    Philosophy Compass 1 (6). 2006.
    The claim that the citizen's duty is to “persuade or obey” the laws, expressed by the personified Laws of Athens in Plato's Crito, continues to receive intense scholarly attention. In this article, we provide a general review of the debates over this doctrine, and how the various positions taken may or may not fit with the rest of what we know about Socratic philosophy. We ultimately argue that the problems scholars have found in attributing the doctrine to Socrates derive from an anachronistic …Read more
  •  45
    Plato's Socrates (edited book)
    Oxford University Press. 1994.
    Brickhouse and Smith cast new light on Plato's early dialogues by providing novel analyses of many of the doctrines and practices for which Socrates is best known. Included are discussions of Socrates' moral method, his profession of ignorance, his denial of akrasia, as well as his views about the relationship between virtue and happiness, the authority of the State, and the epistemic status of his daimonion.