technology of the self

Socrate all’origine di un punto di svolta. Foucault e il predominio del “conosci te stesso”

The aim of this essay is to focus the figure of Socrates in Foucault’s Course of 1981-1982, The Hermeneutics of the Subject, with particular attention to the reasons why the Delphic maxim “know yourself ” (gnothi seautòn) took precedence over the Lacedaemonian maxim “take care of yourself ” (epimelei heautoù) in the “Plato’s Socrates”. A process that has characterized philosophy since its inception, with a decisive change in what Foucault calls the “Cartesian moment”.

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