Between Seneca and Sade: "The Art of the Self' in late Foucault

The aim of the article is to analyze the ethical project that was created by Michel Foucault in his final years and whose conceptual core included a series of closely related concepts: "culture of the self', "care of the self', "aesthetics of existence", etc. Since this project had two correlated - historical-genealogical and ideological - dimensions, both of them are considered. The author also explores reasons and essence of the bias displayed by the philosopher when reconstructing the Hellenistic ethical model as well as the content of Foucault's own views on ethics which he defined as a "considered practice of freedom". As far as the genealogical side of the project is concerned it is based on a set of interrelated postulates. They are as follows. There is no universal human nature. The inner constitution of the modern westerner has been determined by the confluence of historically contingent conditions. It consists of a complex of heterogeneous historical elements. This complex can be transformed within the limits set by the previous development of that constitution. Though these very postulates contain obvious ideological implications, to the greatest extent does the ideological foundation of Foucault's project manifest itself when the philosopher outlines his own model of "culture of the self'. Its conceptual core includes the following statements: The aim of care of the self is to become free. One needs to be free to cultivate knowledge and pleasure and, accordingly, to be free from the Law (in religious, metaphysical, moral and other senses based on them) that puts limits on the way to those objectives. Succeeding in such cultivation endows one's life with aesthetic value. The author arrives at a conclusion that Foucault's ethical ideal asserts the importance of an individualistic self-affirmation of the person on ways to transgression and hedonism. At the same time the problem of sense of freedom as a cornerstone of every ethical activity, according to Foucault, remains unsolved in his project. Plainly speaking, it sinks in the bad infinity of the ongoing widening of the borders of the permitted and experienced.

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