Foucault's Askesis: An Introduction to the Philosophical Life

Topics in Historical Philosophy

by Edward F. McGushin

In his renowned courses at the Collège de France from 1982 to 1984, Michel Foucault devoted his lectures to meticulous readings and interpretations of the works of Plato, Epictetus, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius, among others. In this his aim was not, Edward F. McGushin contends, to develop a new knowledge of the history of philosophy; rather, it was to let himself be transformed by the very activity of thinking. Thus, this work shows us Foucault in the last phase of his life in the act of becoming a philosopher. Here we see how his encounter with ancient philosophy allowed him to experience the practice of philosophy as, to paraphrase Nietzsche, a way of becoming who one the work of self-formation that the Greeks called ask ē sis .


Through a detailed study of Foucault's last courses, McGushin demonstrates that this new way of practicing philosophical ask ē sis evokes Foucault's ethical resistance to modern relations of power and knowledge. In order to understand Foucault's later project, then, it is necessary to see it within the context of his earlier work. If his earlier projects represented an attempt to bring to light the relations of power and knowledge that narrowed and limited freedom, then this last project represents his effort to take back that freedom by redefining it in terms of care of the self. Foucault always stressed that modern power functions by producing individual subjects. This book shows how his excavation of ancient philosophical practices gave him the tools to counter this function-with a practice of self-formation, an askē sis .

380 pages, Paperback

First published April 3, 2007

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book that examines Foucault's notion of philosophy as a practice of self-transformation by way of his engagement with key thinkers in the history of philosophy. A must read for anybody interested in Foucault.

[Zhen Hao · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I expected it to be. First half was Greek to me (literally about Greek philosophy/ Foucault's interpretation of it)