more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
What is ethics, if not the practice of freedom, the conscious [réfléchie] practice of freedom?
Gist of Idea
Ethics is the conscious practice of freedom
Source
Michel Foucault (Ethics of the Concern for Self as Freedom [1984], p.284)
Book Ref
Foucault,Michel: 'Essential Works 1954-1984 I: Ethics', ed/tr. Rabinow,Paul [Penguin 1994], p.284
A Reaction
Makes Foucault sound very existentialist. I'm not sure I understand this kind of remark, given that serial killers seem to be exceptionally good at 'practising their freedom'. However, the idea is akin to Kant's notion of a truly good will (Idea 3710).
Related Idea
Idea 3710 The only purely good thing is a good will [Kant]
| 2141 | I suggest that we forget about trying to define goodness itself for the time being [Plato] |
| 19582 | Morality and philosophy are mutually dependent [Novalis] |
| 14784 | Ethics is the science of aims [Peirce] |
| 7136 | Morality is a system of values which accompanies a being's life [Nietzsche] |
| 8039 | Moore tries to show that 'good' is indefinable, but doesn't understand what a definition is [MacIntyre on Moore,GE] |
| 2943 | Ethics cannot be put into words [Wittgenstein] |
| 6968 | Some people think there are ethical facts, but of a 'queer' sort [Ayer] |
| 6972 | A right attitude is just an attitude one is prepared to stand by [Ayer] |
| 22445 | Morality shows murder is wrong, but not what counts as a murder [Foot] |
| 7419 | Ethics is the conscious practice of freedom [Foucault] |
| 5319 | Avoid punishment, then get rewards, avoid rejection, avoid guilt, accept contracts, follow conscience [Kohlberg, by Wilson,EO] |
| 4003 | Selfhood and moral values are inextricably intertwined [Taylor,C] |
| 20289 | Ethics is universalisable - it must involve an impartial and universal view of things [Singer] |
| 18665 | Moral problems are responsibility conflicts, needing contextual and narrative attention to relationships [Gilligan] |
| 21788 | The moral will is self-determining, but the ethical will is met in society [Houlgate] |