Model of Knowledge in Plato's Socrates

In this book, Nicholas D. Smith argues that the model of knowledge used by Plato's Socrates is akin to knowledge of a craft, which is acquired by degrees, rather than straightforward knowledge of facts.

He contends that a failure to recognize and identify this model, and attempts to ground ethical success in contemporary accounts of propositional or informational knowledge, have led to distortions of Socrates' philosophical mission to improve himself and others in the domain of practical ethics.

He shows that the model of craft-knowledge makes sense of a number of issues scholars have struggled to understand, and makes a case for attributing to Socrates a very sophisticated and plausible view of the improvability of the human condition.