The Transformation of the Self: Foucault’s Observation of the Stoics

Foucault’s fond interest in the care of the self has led him to take a closer look at philosophy, more specifically, its transformational effect on the subject. This depiction of philosophy as a ‘self-transformative exercise’ was already written about and discussed at the Stoa around 2 millenniums before Foucault.

Although Foucault was not a Stoic, and his work isn’t necessarily an endorsement of Stoicism, he turned to ancient philosophy to understand the historical development of notions such as subjectivity, ethics, and philosophy ‘as a way of life’. He observed insight from the Stoics on their way of perceiving philosophy as an agent of self-transformation, and as Pierre Hadot asserts, this outlook aspires to emancipate the subject from its status quo, or better, to transcend it.

What transformation?

According to the Stoics, before any self-transformation can occur, the subject needs to acknowledge philosophy as a ‘medicine’. Foucault mentions Epictetus’s argument that first, one ought to form an image of oneself that is ‘in a state of need’, and that it needs to be ‘treated’ (through the practice of philosophy): ‘this, then, is where the philosophic life begins’. Epictetus’s Discourses continue by saying that you are not ‘treated’ after practising philosophy…