Foucault's Idea of Philosophy as ‘Care of the Self:’ Critical Assessment and Conflicting Metaphilosophical Views

Abstract

The purpose of my study is to discuss the thesis according to which “ultimately, for Foucault, ancient philosophy can be comprehended, if not completely, then at least in several of its fundamental characteristics, as a vast project of inventing, defining, elaborating, and practicing a complex ‘care of the self’ (epimeleia heautou)” (McGushin). I will try to provide a critical assessment of the ethical ‘shift’ in Foucault's texts, courses and interviews from his final years, arguing that the idea of philosophical practice seen as ‘care of the self’ was the major theme of his final project, a theme intended to carry out not only an important transformation in our understanding of the history of ethics and also of the history of subjectivity, but to inspire an ‘aesthetics of existence’ fitted for our times, a poetics of the self conceived as the only possible resistance to biopolitical normalization. In order to appraise Foucault's interpretation of the ancient philosophy I will make special references to P. Hadot's criticisms, but also to other contemporary commentators. More than this, I will try to explore the roots of the violent rejection, coming from many notable figures working in the field of academic philosophy, of Hadot's or Foucault's general ideas about philosophy. The heart of the matter is whether to consider philosophy as ultimately being not only a more or less sterile exercise in critical thinking, but a ‘way of life’ and a kind of ‘self-care’ that involves a repertoire of ethical and social practices whose goal is to favor the self-fashioning of individuals and/or a spiritual conversion of a sort. I will suggest that a complete rebuttal of this ancient vision of philosophy could be seen as a perfect illustration of the complex web of power/knowledge relations that structure the philosophical and cultural paradigm dominant nowadays, one that eventually reduces philosophy to nothing more than a kind of ‘scientific’ research.