Welcome

Welcome back. Today, we’re moving on to talk about the essay from Foucault on technologies of the self. But first, we’re going to start with a philosophical writing practice (we’d been planning to do this last time, but we ran out of time).

We’ll start with a six-minute writing exercise, focussing on introspection.

• How does my body feel today?

• How do I feel emotionally?

• What am I thinking about, or preoccupied about?

• What, just now, do I want most?

Then we’ll go into breakout groups to say hello and check in.

Foucault and Technologies of the Self

We’ve got two sessions to explore this rich, complex paper. So today, we will to look at the first part of the essay, and we will explore some of the concepts. We’re also going to ask about our own “technologies of the self.” But first, we’ll watch this short video on Foucault. It gives a bit more context to his work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBJTeNTZtGU

Four Technologies

Foucault starts by talking about four different technologies, or techniques we use to understand ourselves and to manipulate / transform ourselves, our social relationships, our power relationships, and the world.

• Production

• Sign systems

• Power / domination

• Self

First of all, two questions:

1. In what sense are these technologies?

2. Take an online class (like Parami classes) as an example. How are these four technologies in play / in use in this context?

We’ll give you ten minutes in small breakout groups, and then we’ll get you to feed back!

Care of the Self

Next, Foucault moves on to talk about care of the self. He claims that in ancient Greek philosophy there were two principles: gnothi seauton (Know yourself!) and epimeleisthai sauton (take care of yourself!). We’re more familiar with the first, but both were important in Greece—according to Foucault’s argument—and they are related in interesting ways. Foucault claims that self-knowledge was subordinate to self-care in the ancient Greek context.

Care of the self necessarily involves practices of care. But the self, for Foucault, is not just given. It is also constructed through these technologies and practices! (It’s not like caring for a hamster, something that already exists). So particular forms of care of the self shape our selves, and our self-concepts, in particular ways.

So let’s do some writing and reflection:

• How is self-care related to self-knowledge?

• What regular practices of self-care do you have, and what do you know thanks to these practices?

• How do they shape your self?

We’ll put some notes about these self-care practices on the whiteboard.

Writing & the Care of the Self

If you recall Shusterman’s paper, you will know that philosophical writing can be conceived of as a form of practice, or a form of care of the self. In this sense don’t write just to present our results, but to explore, to investigate, to pay attention, to introspect, to reflect, to test, to weigh-up, to judge.

We’re going to talk more about this next time (and in the next class we’ll set you some more extended homework with a writing/reflection practice); but for today, let’s look at the letter from Marcus Aurelius on p. 233. We’ll read it out loud. For context, Fronto was Marcus Aurelius’s former student.

Reading of Marcus Aurelius’s letter to Fronto (see reading p. 233)

For Foucault, this is writing as a philosophical practice.

Writing exercise

Imagine you are front. Send a brief note back to Marcus Aurelius in response to this letter.

Discussion

• In what sense is this philosophy?

• Why are these apparently inconsequential details important when it comes to care of the self?

• Is the care of the self the care of the body, or of the soul, or both?

Homework

Reread the Foucault if you need to. For your homework, write down one new thing you are going to do in the next 24 hours specifically to take care of yourself (epimeleisthai sauton). I want you to come up with a novel self-care practice, in other words, something you don’t already do. Write this thing down as a single sentence (“I will turn my phone off and hang out with the cat!”, or “I will send an email to a friend!”, or “I will go to bed early”, or “I will put my headphones on listen to some very loud music!”

Post on the discussion board before the deadline, noting down:

1. What is this practice that you decided on? (See if you can write this in a single sentence).

2. What was the experience of explicitly deciding to care for yourself in this way?

3. What did you learn from this experience?