Abstract

In the Alcibiades I of Plato, Socrates argues for a conception of self-knowledge by using an analogy between the eye looking into a mirror and the soul seeing itself reflected in another soul. Socrates argues that: the self is the soul; is divine; resembles God; self-knowledge requires knowledge of God. Both Plotinus and St. Augustine are familiar with the dialogue, though St. Augustine only indirectly, and modify Socrates' discussion of self-knowledge for their own philosophical purposes. The dissertation examines the notion that the soul is a mirror and image of the One or God and that self-knowledge requires following the traces of God written in the soul. The dissertation examines Plotinus' Ennead V and St. Augustine's Confessions Book 1 and On the Trinity and the transformation of a concept of self-knowledge found originally in Alcibiades I