Selfknowledge

Hynek Bartoš
Hippocratic Dietetics and Philosophical Care of the Soul
Summary:
The aim of my essay is to discuss Hippocratic dietetics as a model for construing philosophical ethics in the Classical Era of ancient Greece. I shall demonstrate how  the author of De victu and other Hippocratic authors presented medicine (or more specifically dietetics) as a therapeutic technique aiming at independence from the traditional religious beliefs and practices, from the role of chance in our lives, from disadvantages of our particular natural conditions and predispositions, and even from the need of professional medical care. I will also try to distinguish the object of the dietetic health care from the object of the philosophical “care of soul” advocated by Socrates, his contemporaries and followers.

Ulrich Wollner
The Care of the Self in Xenophon’s Memorabilia
Summary: The paper deals with Socrates’ conception of the care of the self in Xenophon’s work Memorabilia. The first part is intended to analyze the relationship between human body and soul. It shows that the main task of the soul is to rule over the body. Accordingly, the man has to know himself, and the self-knowledge is one of the preconditions of the self-care. The second precondition of the care of the self is the continence. Its aim is to dominate the physical needs and pleasures. They play the role of obstacles that the man has to fight against. To be able to defeat one own’s weaknesses, the wise man needs the lifelong training both of his body and soul. Finally, I discuss the self-sufficiency as the main objective of the human endeavour.

Jakub Jirsa
Plato: self-knowledge as care of oneself
Summary:
My text presents some main features of Plato’s ethics connected with the care of one’s soul, namely his moral psychology situated within the framework of the teleological cosmos. First, I discuss the identification between the self and the soul in the Alcibiades I; further I explain the complexity of the soul and its ethical relevance in the Republic. The final section discusses Plato’s ethical maxim “becoming like god” as presented in the Theaetetus, Republic and Timaeus. In this sense, I believe, one can explain why in the Phaedrus Plato’s Socrates situates his own self on the scale with two limits: a cultivated being with a share in divine on the one hand and the mythical furious beast Typhon on the other (229e-230a). The self (soul) moves on this scale in dependence on the amount of care, which Plato presents in very intellectualistic terms.

Vladislav Suvák
Antisthenes: logos as ēthos
Summary:
The paper deals with Antisthenes' account of language (logos) as well as with the role the logical paradoxes played in Antisthenes' ethical thought (ēthos). The author doesn't see An¬tisthenes' logical investigations as a part of the early "Sophistic" writings. Rather he tries to show the connection between Antisthenes' using of the logic and Socratic ethics of taking care of the self. Socratic thought in Antisthenes' fragments is neither skeptical nor dialectical. Contrary to both of these "intellectualistic" tendencies An¬tisthenes underlines the continual ethical activity of the wise. Antisthenes' using of logical paradoxes (mainly ouk estin antilegein) should have probably served as a de-monstration of an anti-Platonic conviction: Ethics is always prior to metaphysics and logic.
Keywords: Antisthenes – Plato – Cynicism – Language – Logical paradoxes – Ethics of taking care of the self.

Pavol Sucharek
Knowledge as a care for the other or „How to get ahead of Socrates?“
Summary:
This study will analyze the different nature of dialogue as reflected by Socrates and Levinas. The purpose is to show the possibility of non-epistemological speaking of that kind of knowledge, which mediates the dialogue as a conversation of two. In a certain sense it can be said that we replace the maieutics of Socrates by the dialectics of Plato. This dialectics points to how an ordinary dialogue is being transformed into a relationship of a higher order, or a relationship through which the very meaning of what belongs to the higher or divine order shines through. “To get ahead of Socrates” means in the levinasian perspective to accept “the idea of the infinite” – the infinite demand of the impracticable Good. Therefore a dialogue can be perceived, in this sense, as the starting point of every speculation about ethical knowledge in the primary sense as “a care for the other.”

Eugen Andreanský
Donald Davidson and the modern understanding of akratic action
Summary: The paper deals with the nature of akrasia (weakness of will, incontinency). In the first section the emphasis is put on the action theory of Donald Davidson. Davidson’s treatment of incontinent action is a brilliant example of modern approach to old philosophical and ethical issues. The second section introduces a few critical notes to the theory presented by Davidson. The paper also draws attention to the interconnection between akrasia and the problem of irrationality as well as the problem of internalism in action theory.