Today, we’re continuing with our exploration of Foucault’s essay. We’ll also be talking about technologies of the self. But first, we’ll go into breakout groups to talk about the practices of the care of the self that you created. These are the questions we asked you to think about:
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What is this practice that you decided on? (See if you can write this in a single sentence).
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What was the experience of explicitly deciding to care for yourself in this way?
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What did you learn from this experience?
Breakout Groups and Discussion
We’ll start off by going into breakout groups to talk about this, and then feed back into the main room.
The Care of the Self and Politics
We’re going to follow up some questions on the care of the self and politics. At the beginning of his essay, Foucault pairs care of the self and questions of domination. He says that “This encounter between the technologies of domination of others and those of the self I call” governmentality.” Care of the self may both be co-opted by forms of domination, or may be a form of resistance.
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In what sense is care of the self political?
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Can you think of any practices of self-care that are also forms of resistance against forms of domination?
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If you were to write a manual for political resistance, based in the idea of care for the self, what would your first three recommendations be?
Again, we’ll discuss this afterwards in the main room.
Some Final Questions
One big issue in Foucault’s essay is the relationship between the care of the self and truth. So here are some final questions…
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In what ways does the care of the self help us acquire / realise / create (or choose your own verb!) truth?
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Which of these approaches to the care of the self speaks to you most directly? Why?
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What particular relationship does this approach to care of the self have to the notion of truth?
Homework
We’ve been talking about practices of recollection and reflection. For homework, keep a writing diary over the next four days. Each morning, take one of the following sentences in the morning. Read it several times. Then write the sentence out by hand (just in English, unless you know Chinese).
After this, throughout the day, bear this passage in mind. Then, in the evening, make a few notes about your reflections on this sentence, and your experience of the day.
Do this for each sentence, one every day. The sentences all come from Confucius’s Analects. We’ll talk about Confucius next week, but this time, your job is only to reflect on the sentences, and what they mean to you, and to write a record of your reflections on Canvas. They may seem strange. But don’t worry too much about the original context. Just see how they speak to you.
Have fun!
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Day 1: 曾子曰：「吾日三省吾身：為人謀而不忠乎？與朋友交而不信乎？傳不習乎？」Zengzi said, ‘Every day, I examine myself in three respects: have I failed to treat others with devotion? In my relationships with friends, have I not been trustworthy? Is there anything I have learned, but not put into practice?’
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Day 2: 禮之用，和為貴… When making use of social rituals, it is harmony that should be taken as most valuable…
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Day 3: 君子博學於文，約之以禮，亦可以弗畔矣夫！The superior person becomes knowledgeable through wide learning, and restrains themselves through ritual. They will not overstep the boundaries (of proper conduct)!
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Day 4: 禮云禮云，玉帛云乎哉？When we say ‘ritual… ritual…’, are we just talking about gemstones and silk?