STRATEGIC SELF CARE: FOUCAULT’S FINAL WORK AND THE PURSUIT OF PRACTICES OF FREEDOM
Open Access
- Author:
- Wimberly, Cory Michael
- Graduate Program:
- Philosophy
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- December 12, 2006
- Committee Members:
- Charles Edward Scott, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Nancy A Tuana, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Dennis Schmidt, Committee Member
John Philip Christman, Committee Member
Jeffrey Nealon, Committee Member - Keywords:
- foucault
morality
benedict
freedom
final - Abstract:
- Michel Foucault was one of the most important figures in twentieth century philosophy and one of the few whose work was important across the disciplines. This is why it is strange that his two final publications, The Use of Pleasure and The Care of the Self, have received little systematic treatment. My dissertation builds on Foucault’s final two works to answer longstanding questions raised by his thought surrounding the relation of modern social and political institutions to the history of moral thought. Foucault’s final two works returned to antiquity in order the study primogenitors of the moral ideas that would shape and guide the development of certain prevalent contemporary social and political institutions. Unfortunately, Foucault died before he could carry his moral researches forward to their contact point with the birth of the contemporary social and political institutions that he studies in Discipline and Punish and Sécurité, Territoire, Population. I follow up on his research by gathering together the nascent lines of thought that Foucault left in interviews, articles, and the Foucault Archive in France. I extend these thoughts on the morality of antiquity forward in time through an original examination of medieval Christian thought, specifically that surrounding coenobitical monasticism and pastoral life. Through this extension, I am able to tie together the moral line of thought that Foucault began in antiquity with his analyses of the disciplines and governmentality, which were both highly influenced by coenobitical monasticism and the pastoral. These studies reveal the complex contemporary interlinking of many areas of politics (the government of others) and morality (the government of the self). The result of this complex and deep intertwining is that many of the problems facing social and governmental institutions cannot be solved without also addressing basic moral issues as well. For example, Christian morality, as laid out in the Rule of St. Benedict and Pastoral Care by Gregory the Great, emphasizes man’s sinful nature through a focus on the Fall and the crucifixion. These texts conclude that, as a result of man’s indelibly sinful and limited nature, man requires guidance by God or one of his lieutenants (priests, bishops, saints, etc.) in order to properly carry out a moral life. The effect of this insight on moral life is that self-governance becomes focused on obediance and submission to moral superiors as central values. In the dissertation, I draw on Foucault to show that many of the basic social institutions of the West inherit this understanding that people are generally incapable of their own self-governance without expert guidance. To begin to see this, one can look to the powerful need that people feel today to consult experts in order to carry out ‘proper’ career, family, fashion, financial, health, sexual, and political decisions.