This week, we explore the pre-modern notion of self as constructed through philosophical communication. Reading Plato's account of Socrates' death at the hands of Athenian democracy and discussing Aristotle's conception of self as a 'political animal' we meet the classical self as constructed through teleology. One who would contest the state must employ persuasion as far as possible, but to remake the state in one's own image is a crime punishable by death. From the pre-modern perspective, the state is the father - and the individual the dutiful child.

Reading: Plato's Crito

Notes: Socrates and virtue

Notes: Aristotle's Conception of the Citizen