Tworzenie siebie i wolność. Myśl etyczna Foucaulta

Abstract

In the later phase of his work, Foucault was particularly interested in exploring the possibilities of creating our own subjectivity and presenting its ethical dimension. The notion of pastoral power as well as the distinction between morality focused on ethics and morality focused on a normative code played a significant role in this undertaking. The former turned out to be particularly important in the context of Foucault’s earlier findings, according to which, a subject is a social construct, a product of regimes of power/knowledge. This was because pastoral power, although like any other kind of power it forms us from outside, strongly implies an active participation of the subject in the creation of himself. This kind of activity dominated also in morality focused on ethics which, according to Foucault, was practised by the Greco-Roman elites (above all in the first centuries of our era). In my text, I analyse the above themes in an attempt to show that in Foucault’s works they constitute the emancipation project of “new” morality.