epimeleia

[…] Socrates [Apologia] describes himself as exhorting his fellow citizens to change their lives. He says that people who have false beliefs about the most important things but do not recognize their ignorance should be “ashamed” that they are not “taking care [epimele]” and “having thought [phrontize]” for wisdom, truth, and the best possible state of their souls. He claims that they are inverting the correct values, overvaluing inferior things and undervaluing the most important ones (29d-30a). Later, he says that he comes to each of them “like a father or elder brother,” trying “to persuade you to care about virtue [epimeleisthai aretes]’” (31b4-5). Socrates wants people to care and have thought for (epimeleisthai, phrontizein) wisdom, truth, virtue, and their souls, rather than wealth, reputation, and their bodies and possessions. But what exactly does he want his fellow citizens to do? What does it mean to “care for’ virtue or one’s soul?

In order to answer these questions, we need to look more carefully at the language Socrates uses in these passages—in particular, at the key verb, epimeleisthai (in the noun form, epimeleia). Epimeleisthai is often translated as “to care for.’ But, as is the case with many Greek words and their common English translations, the fit is not perfect. In order to see what Socrates is saying, we need to look more closely at the way the word epimeleisthai and its cognates were used by Plato and his contemporaries.

The root for these words, epimel-, is composed of two parts: the root “mel-” — meaning “concern,’ “thought,’ or “interest’—with the prefix “epi-’—meaning “upon’ or “over.’ Thus, their radical sense is “concern, thought, or interest directed upon or over something.’ In both verb and noun form, epimel- is often complemented by a genitive that indicates the object upon which concern or interest is directed.

The LSJ defines the verb form, “epimeleomai,” as “to take care of, have charge of: to have the management of: to pay attention to, cultivate.” In some cases, a person “has the management of” something as a result of a specific public commission or delegation. But this need not be the case: Farmers are said to “manage” or “cultivate” their fields; craftsmen to “pay attention to” their crafts; and even the gods to “have charge of” or “be caretakers of” us, their property.

In one common construction of epimeleisthai, the verb is complemented by an object clause of effort. The object clause is introduced by hopos, usually with a future indicative verb. Thus, “epimeleomai tnos hopos hos beltistos estai” means something like “I take care of something with the object that it be as good as possible.” This construction is teleological, in that the object clause identifies the end that the subject of the verb has in mind in caring for, managing, or attending to the object. This construction with epimeleisthai appears several times in the Apology.

[Benjamin Albert Rider, Socratic Protreptic and Moral Education in Plato’s Early Dialogues]