Socrates and Thrasymachus: Symbols of Autism and Psychopathy

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The Socratic 'good life' encourages level headed discourse, thus leaning pretty heavily on Socrates' theory of mind. Of course that's something people develop gradually but I'm not sure anyone can say whether Socrates learned this from first or third party observation.

I bought The Republic a while back but I hadn't gotten around to reading it yet. Your post peaked my interest, so I've begun reading it now. I will check back in when I've gotten farther along and let you know what I think. I am very intrigued to explore this work through the framework of contrasting autist/psychopath. Morality and justice have always been special interests of mine (probably what drew me, as a curious layperson, to philosophy in the first place).

Well put, cberg. I don't get why people often say autistics just can't acquire "theory of mind" as they get older (if they're not very good at it from an early age); it's like with anything else, whether it's social skills, figurative language, abstract ideas, body language, etc. - they'll acquire it eventually (provided they're high functioning enough, I suppose; some who are profoundly autistic might not ever acquire some of these things).