care of the self

is listening carefully to what one says to oneself.

Care for yourself enough to listen carefully to what you say to yourself.

is (goethe does not use this term) such that the body must be taken care of with steadfast fidelity, as the soul must see through these eyes alone, and if they are dim, the whole world is clouded.

Take care of your body with steadfast fidelity. The soul must see through these eyes alone, and if they are dim, the whole world is clouded. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

is a set of exercises to prepare one for a lifelong battle against external events, the unknown event.

One of the characteristic ways of describing the care of the self was as a set of exercises that prepared one for a lifelong battle against external events. . . ..'The Stoic athlete [. . . ] had to be prepared for a battle, a battle in which his adversary was anything that might come at him from the outside world: the event. The antique athlete is an athlete of the event' (Rabinow 2003: 9)

is a set of practices that involve knowing oneself. If you take proper care of yourself, if you know what you are capable of, what you can reasonably hope for, and what things should matter to you, you cannot abuse your power over others.

Taking care of oneself requires knowing (connaître) oneself' (Foucault, 1997, p. 285). In expanding on this theme, he adds:if you take proper care of yourself, that is, if you know ontologically what you are, if you know what you are capable of, if you know what it means for you to be a citizen of a city, . . . if you know what things you should and should not fear, if you know what you can reasonably hope for and, on the other hand, what things should not matter to you . . . if you know all this, you cannot abuse your power over others. (Foucault, 1997, p. 288)

In a late interview, Foucault characterizes the care of the self as the deliberate practice of freedom' (Gordon 1999:408)

is the elaboration of one's life as a work of art.

Care of the self is the 'elaboration of one's life as a personal work of art' (Gordon 1999:409)

is the idea that freedom is the condition of possibility of being human, and not the condition of possibility of human will. Only for this reason can it coherently stress the idea of improving one's self and transcending one's own limits.

Only because care of one's self assumes that freedom is the condition of possibility of being human, and not human will, can it coherently stress the idea of improving one's self and transcending one's own limits' (Gordon 1999:408)

is the name of the ethical principle that leads people to cultivate themselves, that is to work to improve themselves, to take care of the self.

The name of the ethical principle that leads people to cultivate themselves, that is to work to improve themselves: 'This 'cultivation of the self' can be briefly characterized by the fact that one must 'take care of oneself.' It is this principle of the care of the self that establishes its necessity, presides over its development, and organizes its practice (Foucault, Care of the Self, p.43). In ancient times this was often understood to involve a 'cultivation of the soul' (Foucault, Care of the Self, p.45). In earlier times this was a matter of self-mastery, but over the course of history it became more a matter of learning to shape one's own inner character (Foucault, Care of the Self, p.67)

care of the self, n.All

care of the self