ABSTRACT
The word Socrates uses for his inner voice is 'hatpovtov', usually translated as 'a little spirit' or 'a divine sign'. The Greeks had a word for this 'knowledge that really helps' - phronesis. To his enemies, it must have appeared that Socrates was claiming to be in direct communication with a god unrecognised in the official pantheon; hence the inclusion of sacrilege on the list of charges against him. Many a medical consultation is a 'Phaedrus in miniature', in which the contribution of the Inner Physician is as crucial as that of his daimonion was to Socrates. The contribution of the Inner Physician is to challenge and enlighten the logic-slave people might otherwise become; the duty of reason is to check the potential excesses of unrestrained spontaneity. Socrates never allowed his daimonion arbitrarily to overrule the conclusions of rational thought. Its promptings simply became a further piece of evidence to be integrated into a better informed decision.
