Plato’s Socrates is famous for claiming that “I know one thing: That I know nothing” (see e.g. Ap. 21d and Meno 81d). There is one subject that Socrates repeatedly claims to have expertise in, however: ta erôtika (see e.g. Symp. 198d1). Socrates also refers to this expertise as his erôtikê technê (Phdr. 257a7–8), which may be translated as “erotic expertise”. In this dissertation, I investigate Socrates’ erotic expertise: what kind of expertise is it, what is it constituted by, where is it put into practice, and how is it practiced? I argue that the purposes this expertise serve are, to a significant extent, educational in nature. After first having clarified the dissertation’s topic and aim, as well as my methodological approach, I present an initial account of erôs and Socrates’ erotic expertise. While discussing what constitutes Socrates’ erotic expertise, I account for two erotic educational methods: midwifery and matchmaking. I further argue that these methods tend to be accompanied by two psychological techniques, namely charming and shaming. I argue that these methods and techniques are systematically applied by Socrates when he puts his erotic expertise into practice. In the dissertation, three dialogues where Socrates practices his erotic expertise are scrutinized: Lysis, Charmides, and Alcibiades I. I focus on Socrates’ encounters with the eponymous youths of the dialogues, and each dialogue is devoted a chapter of its own. I show how these dialogues are erotically charged, and also how Socrates in these dialogues demonstrates his erotic expertise. I argue that Socrates’ expertise on erôs plays an essential role in his attempts to engage the three youths in the processes of self-cultivation, learning, and the very practice of philosophy. In the final chapter of the dissertation I turn to some questions that arise in light of my readings, and summarize the results of my investigation.

Based on extended research on Chinese medical and epidemiological archival material dating back to the beginning of the 20th century, and on six months of internship in epidemiology in Beijing’s Medical School and in Haidian District’s Centre of Disease Control and Prevention, this thesis explores the conjunction of three major epidemiological crises in modern Chinese history with processes of State formation: the 1911 Manchurian pneumonic plague, the 1952 germ-warfare, and the 2003 SARS outbreak. Analysing the three crises as Events in line with Alain Badiou’s epistemology it seeks to establish how different strategies of governmental fidelity to the imagined cause of each crisis have led to distinct modes of organisation and valorisation of the social: Republican China and its decline to fascism; the clash between professional revolutionaries and technocrats in Maoist China; and the emergence of the “Harmonious Society” of mass exploitation and repression today. This conjunction between State formation and epidemiological Events is explored with the use of Foucault’s genealogical method in a quest for a historical materialist approach that posits at its epicentre processes of class composition, decomposition and recomposition, and their contested enclosure by the governmental apparati of capture. The present thesis thus examines the three major epidemiological crises of modern China as forming grounds for biopolitical strategies that give rise to modes of subjectivation and circuits of debt/guilt within the context of the class struggle. And at the same time, it aims to create a new field of investigation for anthropology: the relation of State and Event, from a viewpoint that contests the accepted relation of event and structure expounded by Marshall Sahlins, proposing as the main object of this investigation the conjunction between necessity and will that can never be reduced either to the naturalism of historical determinism, nor to the culturalism of subjective contingency.

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I den här uppsatsen, vilken är skriven som en vetenskaplig essä, undersöker jag konstnärens praktiska kunskap med utgångspunkt i en situation där jag målar. Vad jag intresserar mig för är hur tänkandet påverkar den kroppsliga handlingen. Henri Bergson, Erich Fromm och japansk zenbuddhism är perspektiv jag använt mig av för att titta närmare på temat. Fromm har synliggjort att kärlek är en attityd som innebär att jag är koncentrerad i mötet med andra. Att kunna vara koncentrerad och att kunna älska ändamålsenligt är liktydigt. För att undvika plagiera mina tidigare arbeten behöver jag älska att arbeta. Bergson har visat att intuition och intellekt är två medvetandeformer jag kan agera utifrån och erfara verkligheten på. Två former av kunskap. Om jag planerar vad jag ska måla utgår jag från intellektet och hämmar mitt arbete. Utgår jag istället från intuition låter jag nuet tillföra arbetet något nytt. Vad zen påvisat och betonat, är att mitt beteende indikerar huruvida jag är närvarande eller inte. Att praktiskt öva på att vara närvarande i nuet möjliggör att du kan reagera spontant på verkligheten istället för att planera ditt agerande. De teoretiska perspektiven enas kring vikten av närvaro i nuet. Men också att det viktiga inte är att välja det ena eller andra. Vad som är väsentligt är både och. Mötet mellan mig och andra. Intuition och intellekt. Samt ett beteende som reagerar spontant och planerar. Vad som framkommit genom essän är att det råder en obalans mellan kunskapsformerna intellekt och intuition i en västerländsk kontext. En summerande fråga essän ställer är: vad innebär det för människan som biologisk varelse om ett naturligt sätt att erfara verkligheten på, inte bejakas? / In this essay, which is written as a scientific essay, I examine the artist's practical knowledge based on a situation where I paint. What I am interested in is how thinking affects bodily action. Henri Bergson, Erich Fromm and Japanese Zen Buddhism are perspectives I use to survey the theme. Fromm has made clear, that love is an attitude that means I am concentrated in the meeting with others. Being able to concentrate and the ability to make love an end in itself, is synonymous. To avoid plagiarizing previous work, I need to love working. Bergson has shown that intuition and intellect are two forms of consciousness and fundamental in the experience of reality. Two forms of knowledge. If I plan what I am going to paint, my point of departure is the intellect which inhibit the work. If I instead start from intuition, I let the present time add something new to the work. What Zen has shown and emphasized, is that my behavior indicate whether I am present or not. Practically practicing being present enables you to react spontaneously on reality instead of planning your actions. The theoretical perspectives agree on the importance of being present. And also, what is important is not to choose one or the other. What is essential is both. The meeting between me and others. Intuition and intellect. As well as a behavior that reacts spontaneously and plans. What the essay has shown is that there is an imbalance between the two forms of knowledge, intellect and intuition, in a Western context. A summary question the essay asks is: what impact does it have on man as a biological being if a natural way of experiencing life, is not affirmed?