Brenner Brunetto

The Care of the Self in Ancient Philosophy Brenner Brunetto

It can be said that Ancient Philosophy, more precisely that of the period after Natural Philosophy, that is, the so-called Classical Philosophy, was born with the famous Delphic phrase "know thyself"(gn?thi seautón), a phrase that, in turn, became known through Socrates of Athens. For Michel Foucault, this phrase only the tip of an iceberg that contained a more robust and voluminous background designated by Foucault as epiméleia heautou, or, more precisely, as Care of Self. With this idea, the French philosopher arrives at his theory known as Aesthetics of Existence, in which the ethical agent is, at the same time, artist and work of himself. Such Care of the Self, which had some differences from school to school, or, more precisely, from period to period, namely: 1) Socratic/Platonic period; 2) Hellenistic period and; 3) Christian period. In this way, the objective of this text is to make a brief analysis of such periods.