Foucault and listening in pythagoreanism: a practice between philosophy and spirituality

Abstract

In the spiritual and philosophical proposals by the ancient Greco-Romans for taking care of oneself (epiméleia heautoû), the listening-related ones stand out. Listening has been characterized by exercises, such as reading, writing, memorizing, and meditating, the first and most crucial ways of owning the truth about the subject. Based on analyses carried out by Michel Foucault regarding taking care of oneself in Hermeneutics of the Subject and going through fundamental commentators of Pythagorean thought, this research has the purpose of approaching listening, possibly in its old orientations such as the process of self-control and ascetic practice. Facing the demands of listening and silence as a required exercise of introduction and permanence at school, the Pythagorean disciple was asked to change in the constant search for knowledge as their master did.