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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 Ref
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.
| 5837 | Things are both good and fine by the same standard [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 5845 | Niceratus learnt the whole of Homer by heart, as a guide to goodness [Xenophon] |
| 139 | A good person is bound to act well, and this brings happiness [Plato] |
| 5142 | Oxen, horses and children cannot be happy, because they cannot perform fine deeds [Aristotle] |
| 2689 | Good people enjoy virtuous action, just as musicians enjoy beautiful melodies [Aristotle] |
| 101 | Slaves can't be happy, because they lack freedom [Aristotle] |
| 3562 | Fine things are worthless if they give no pleasure [Epicurus] |
| 7499 | Stoicism was an elitist option to lead a beautiful life [Stoic school, by Foucault] |
| 14815 | We get enormous pleasure from tales of noble actions [Nietzsche] |
| 7501 | Why couldn't a person's life become a work of art? [Foucault] |