An Instrument for the Good Life

The Judgment of Others in Plutarch

Abstract

Plutarch of Chaeronea (45-125), an important representative of Medioplatonism, will highlight the importance of the passions on the horizon of human experience as a distinguishing feature and, in doing so, considers the tópos to be occupied by the judgment of others in human life. Plutarch’s call for attention to be paid to acting in the pólis, political life, with others, which can be used as an instrument for the good life, is clear. Plato, says Plutarch, will warn us about the dangers of inordinate love for oneself, since it is complex for human beings to be honest and impartial judges of themselves, and the need arises to listen attentively to the judgments of others. Plutarch starts from the Platonic philosophical matrix that drives his writings, urging his reader to practical wisdom and inviting a specular analysis that will require a human being who is intellectually active and attentive to the hope of the flourishing of virtue. The philosopher will make use of parrhesía, frank speech, which will recur to him both in his Parallel Lives (Vitae) and in the Moral Treatises (Moralia), provoking in his reader’s mind the need for a paidéia anchored in self-examination and correct listening, as well as in careful observation of the other agents of the pólis. The polygraph’s invitation is for human beings to pay attention to the need to purify themselves and to give themselves over to the effort of purifying the other actors who act and suffer with us.