Foucault finds a foothold for prioritizing the question of self-care in Plato’s Alcibiades. In this dialogue Socrates becomes the spiritual teacher of Alcibiades in the latter’s quest for self-knowledge. And Foucault asks: “In that relationship, why should Alcibiades be concerned with himself, and why is Socrates concerned with that concern of Alcibiades?” (1988, p. 24). In Plato’s text we learn that Alcibiades wants to gain personal and political power over others but that Socrates is able to show him that power over others resides actually in power over self, which requires self-care for its edification. But what Foucault does not consider is that Plato’s Alcibiades can also be interpreted as a narrative wherein the meaning of care consists in a pedagogical concern for the other’s care as self-care.
In Plato’s Alcibiades the figure of Socrates is involved in care, namely care for his pupil. This is the story: Socrates is worried about Alcibiades since the latter does not know how to take care of his self or soul. Thus, Plato shows, in the example of Socrates, that care as cultivation of self finds its roots in care as concern for others. We can easily translate this idea in everyday pedagogical terms—as parent I care for my child’s care as self-care. My pedagogical concern is with the child’s taking proper care of his or her body and soul. If I do this not just out of mere parental duty but from a genuine sense of care-as-worrying, then I cannot help but be pre-occupied with this other person’s welfare.
Selected Readings:
Foucault, M. (1988). “Technologies of the Self.” In L. H. Martin, H. Gutman, P. Hutton, and H. Patrick (eds.), Technologies of the Self. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, pp. 16–59.