Foucault and the subject of stoic existence

Brian Seitz

pp. 539-554

in: Martin Endreß, Stefan Nicolae (eds), In memory of Harold Garfinkel, Human Studies 35 (4), 2012.

Abstract

Foucault is typically seen as having rebelled against the previous generation of French philosophy, which was dominated by existential phenomenology, and by Sartre in particular. However, the relationship between these two generations and between these two philosophers is more complex than one of simple opposition. Through a refracted focus on Foucault's late work on Greco-Roman philosophy and on the themes of the practice of the care of the self and the freedom associated with that practice, I argue that Foucault—whose philosophy is centered around the problematization of site-specific processes of subjectification— is closer to existentialism than he seems.

Cited authors

Sartre Jean-Paul

Foucault Michel