Single Idea 7501

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / B. Value / 2. Values / h. Fine deeds]

Full Idea

Couldn't everyone's life become a work of art? Why should the lamp or the house be an art object, but not our life?

Gist of Idea

Why couldn't a person's life become a work of art?

Source

Michel Foucault (On the Genealogy of Ethics [1983], p.261)

Book Reference

Foucault,Michel: 'Essential Works 1954-1984 I: Ethics', ed/tr. Rabinow,Paul [Penguin 1994], p.261


A Reaction

This sounds wonderfully appealing until I try to think how I would implement it. The Augustine move, from sinner to saint, is a possibility, but there is nothing good about sin. The Christian ideal, of colossal self-sacrifice, can be very heroic.