In his 1982 lecture on theHermeneutics of the Subject, Michel Foucault presents an investigation into the notion of " ", which, far more than the famous " ", organizes the practices of philosophy. The aim is to show the techniques, procedures and historical aims by which an ethical subject is constituted, in a given relationship to the self. These studies go beyond the strict confines of the history of philosophy. In describing the ancient mode of subjectivation, Michel Foucault seeks to highlight the precariousness of the modern mode of subjectivation. By re-reading the Ancients, he enables us to question our identity as modern subjects. All his work consists in making us strangers to ourselves, by showing the historicity of what might seem the most anhistorical : the way in which, as subjects, we relate to ourselves. What this passage to the Ancients also enabled was a reformulation of the political problem: what if today's struggles were not just struggles against political domination, not just struggles against economic exploitation, but struggles against the subjugation of identity ? Michel Foucault, rereading Plato and Marcus Aurelius, Epicurus and Seneca, seeks not to go beyond, but to rethink politics.
This summary is published with the kind permission of Editions du Seuil. It is taken from the back cover ofL'Herméneutique du sujet. Cours au Collège de France (1981-1982) by Michel Foucault, published March 28, 2001.
Audio recordings of Michel Foucault 's lectures were made by his public, notably by Gilbert Burlet, and given at the Collège de France.