Knowledge and self-care according to Foucault and the Neoplatonics

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51359/2357-9986.2022.250004

Keywords:

self-knowledge, Politics, Foucault, Plato. Proclus, Providentialaction

Abstract

Revisiting the foucaltian proposal of the centrality and inseparability of theimperatives of self-knowledge and self-care in ancient philosophy, I turn myattention to its formulation in the platonic dialogue Alcibiades I. In this con-text, I propose a critical assessment of the foucaltian reading on the role ofpolitics as ‘care for other’ in Plato and his Neoplatonic commentators. Cen-tral to my criticism is a disagreement about the nature of the tension be-tween cathartic life and civic life, the relationship of means and end betweencare for self and care for other, and the nature of the philosopher's motiva-tion in his political engagement.

Author Biography

Danillo Costa Lima, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo

Mestre e Doutorando em Filosofia Antiga.

References

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Published

2022-02-11

Issue

Section

Número especial sobre Neoplatonismo - Fontes e Diálogos