Abstract

The theme of self-care is at the center of many contemporary ethical proposals, which draw it from ancient philosophies. This contribution will compare the first formulation of the concept of self-care, presented in Plato’s Alcibiades I , with its late-antique Neoplatonic developments, in which self-knowledge and self-care constitute not the primary objective of the citizen-man – as in today’s ethics of care – but only the preparatory phase to a philosophical life, free from the passions and tasks of political life.