technologies of the self was a 1928 seminar by michel foucaultmichel foucault
michel foucault was a philosopher who used the technique of genealogy. In technologies of the self, he says
My objective for more than twenty-five years has been to sketch out a history... tracing the "development of the hermeneutics of the self" as a technologytechnology
technology is an organism's response to chaos sive natura in the form of a problem as a "low-resistance path to an end."1
in the question concerning technology, heidegger asks what... in platonismplatonism
platonism starts with the theory of plato's forms. You ask the question what is X?
eidos - "visible form"
morphe - "shape"
phainomena - "appearances"
aristotle
Aristotle wants to..., hellenistic philosophyhellenistic philosophy
hellenistic philosophy consists in reconstructions of socrates in stoic and epicureanism and aristotle.
, and western christian monasticism. Foucault had published the history of sexuality in 1976, and he talks about how this led him to become interested in technologies of the self.
i conceived of a rather odd project: not the evolution of sexual behavior but the projection of a history of the link between the obligation to tell the truth and the prohibitions against sexuality. i asked: how had the subject been compelled to decipher himself in regard to what was forbidden? it is a question of the relation between asceticism and truth.
there are 4 major types of technologies.
| Type | Ability |
|---|---|
| Production | Produce, transform, manipulate things |
| Sign systems (semioticssemiotics Semiotics is the theory of the signs, like in language. ) |
Use signs, meanings, symbols, or signification |
| Power | Turn other individuals into objects for some end |
| Self | Let individuals effect their own means or transform themselves |
He starts with epimelesthai sauton (take care of yourself) and gnothi sauton (know yourself in alcibiadesalcibiades
alcibiades is a dialogue by plato. michel foucault says those in neoplatonism considered it the first dialogue.
and apologyapology
apology (greek for speech of defense) is a dialogue by plato about the trial of socrates.
. It appears also in Christian asceticism and epicureanismepicureanism
epicureanism is the hellenistic philosophy from epicurus. It is a rival school to stoic.
. But the latter has overtaken the latter because knowledge of the self took priority in philosophy (Foucault points to theory from descartesdescartes
descartes was a french philosopher and mathematician. he's not technically a part of skeptic but he has influences of its thought.
to Husserl) and religion.
These communities placed a great focus on readingreading
reading is a technology of retrieving information from Writing through interpretation. nabokov says a good reader needs 4 things: imagination, memory, a dictionary, some art... and Writing Private or Broken Links
The page you're looking for is either not available or private!
as a technique for knowing the self.