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The Sphinx, Typhon and the Self

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2018

Abstract

In this talk I make two simple claims which might be useful for reading and interpreting the Alcibiades. First, I show that the question "Who am I?" can be answered in several different ways, which cannot be easily reduced to one another.

I distinguish the anthropological meaning, the practical identity meaning and the sense in which the question targets our deeper, constitutive self (all the labels are tentative suggestions). Second, I argue that the Alcibiades reflects at least two of these different senses and, finally, I suggest a certain way how to understand the relation between these different senses as presented in the Alcibiades.