The self must be distinguished from its instruments: just as users of tools are distinct from the tools, the human self is distinct from the body it uses.

By Plato, from Alcibiade

Key Arguments

  • Socrates begins by clarifying the dialogical situation—‘I, Socrates, am talking’ and ‘Alcibiades is my hearer’—and then notes that in talking he ‘use[s] words,’ leading to the question of the relation between user and used.
  • He offers concrete examples: ‘the shoemaker, for example, uses a square tool, and a circular tool, and other tools for cutting,’ and ‘the instrument of the harper is to be distinguished from the harper himself,’ which Alcibiades readily grants.
  • From these cases, Socrates generalizes the principle that ‘the user is not the same as the thing which he uses,’ and Alcibiades agrees that ‘the user [is] always different from that which he uses.’
  • Socrates then asks whether the shoemaker cuts only with his tools or also ‘with his hands’ and whether he uses ‘his eyes in cutting leather,’ getting Alcibiades to concede that hands and eyes are also used.
  • Applying the earlier principle, Socrates concludes that ‘the shoemaker and the harper are to be distinguished from the hands and feet which they use,’ and extends this to the human case: ‘does not a man use the whole body?’
  • Since ‘that which uses is different from that which is used,’ it follows that ‘a man is not the same as his own body,’ preparing the move to identify the user with the soul.

Source Quotes

ALCIBIADES: Certainly. SOCRATES: And talking and using words have, I suppose, the same meaning? ALCIBIADES: To be sure.
ALCIBIADES: What do you mean? SOCRATES: I will explain; the shoemaker, for example, uses a square tool, and a circular tool, and other tools for cutting? ALCIBIADES: Yes.
ALCIBIADES: Of course not. SOCRATES: And in the same way the instrument of the harper is to be distinguished from the harper himself? ALCIBIADES: It is.
ALCIBIADES: To be sure. SOCRATES: And the user is not the same as the thing which he uses? ALCIBIADES: What do you mean?
ALCIBIADES: Yes. SOCRATES: And does he use his eyes in cutting leather? ALCIBIADES: He does.
ALCIBIADES: Yes. SOCRATES: Then the shoemaker and the harper are to be distinguished from the hands and feet which they use? ALCIBIADES: Clearly.
ALCIBIADES: Clearly. SOCRATES: And does not a man use the whole body? ALCIBIADES: Certainly.
ALCIBIADES: True. SOCRATES: Then a man is not the same as his own body? ALCIBIADES: That is the inference.

Key Concepts

  • And talking and using words have, I suppose, the same meaning?
  • the shoemaker, for example, uses a square tool, and a circular tool, and other tools for cutting?
  • the instrument of the harper is to be distinguished from the harper himself?
  • the user is not the same as the thing which he uses?
  • And does he use his eyes in cutting leather?
  • Then the shoemaker and the harper are to be distinguished from the hands and feet which they use?
  • And does not a man use the whole body?
  • Then a man is not the same as his own body?

Context

As part of investigating what the self is, Socrates develops a general distinction between user and instrument and applies it to the body, arguing that since we use the body as an instrument, the true self cannot simply be identical with the body.