Abstract

The aim of the paper is to grasp Foucault’s approach to ethics as a relation to the self, that forms an interpretative frame and to apply it on reading of Plato’s dialogue Alcibiades I. The first part deals with the characterization of Foucault’s approach to ethics. The second part applies this approach to the reading of Plato’s Alcibiades I., using four main aspects of the ethics as the relation to the self. The paper brings attention to the positive aspects of this interpretation, which allow us to resolve some of the main interpretative problems of the dialogue, but it also stresses negative moments which are linked to this type of interpretation applied to the ancient philosophical texts.