Jakub Jirsa
SUMMARY
Who is Alcibiades? On the Several Identities in the Alcibiades Maior
The article distinguishes two possible answers presented by the Alcibiades I regarding the question “Who am I?”. The first answer is carried out in terms of our practical identity, as it is discussed in the first part of the dialogue; the second answer concerns our deeper, constitutive self, uncovered in the second part of the dialogue. Whereas other interpretations look for different senses of the “self” in the second part of the dialogue, my interpretation shows that distinct concepts of the “self” are to be found across the entire dialogue. In conclusion I address the relation between these two concepts of the self in order to show in what sense the constitutive “self” serves as a normative ground for our practical identity.