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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]
7418 | The idea of liberation suggests there is a human nature which has been repressed [Foucault] |
7419 | Ethics is the conscious practice of freedom [Foucault] |
7420 | When logos controls our desires, we have actually become the logos [Foucault] |
7422 | A subject is a form which can change, in (say) political or sexual situations [Foucault] |
7423 | Philosophy and politics are fundamentally linked [Foucault] |
7424 | Saying games of truth were merely power relations would be a horrible exaggeration [Foucault] |
7425 | The aim is not to eliminate power relations, but to reduce domination [Foucault] |
7426 | Critical philosophy is what questions domination at every level [Foucault] |