Foucault Reading

In this particular reading, Foucault discusses the concept of "self" and how the notion has evolved over time. From what I have gleaned from the text, the concept of the "self" derived from the concept of "taking care of yourself" and has evolved to the well-known phrases "know thyself."

Let us first discuss this notion of "taking care of oneself." Within this original concept, there seems to be at least three different variations of this saying. The first variation comes from the ancient Greeks and Romans, who follow the credence "take care of yourself by taking care of your city." In taking care of one's city, each citizen was looking out for the other, thus leading to a community built on loyalty to one another. The second variation followed eight centuries later with Gregory of Nyssa's credence of "take care of yourself and search your soul to regain immortality" - a precursor to the third variation of the concept practiced by Christians. This particular way of taking care of yourself led to the betterment of the individual on a spiritual level, thus shifting the focus from the community to the self (a strain of "know thyself" coming through). The third variation of this concept was "take care of yourself and better your soul to help every member of the group with the mutual work of salvation." This particular way of taking care of yourself led to the betterment of your spiritual self and the spiritual nature of others. So while slightly shifting focus to be more on the individual, there is still attention on the community as a whole. This third concept of "take care of yourself" also has a moral strain to it, in that denying yourself things is the key to earning salvation. Also, there is the idea that you come to know yourself based on the sacrifices you make and how you handle said sacrifices.

Fast forward to present-day, the concept of "know thyself" is much more relatable based on our sense of community. The "take care of yourself" mentality goes against the blend of Christian morals, doing things for others which is considered good in the eyes of God and leads to a one way trip up to Heaven and a secular form of rules that dictate how we behave and interact with others. In other words, we follow the "take care of yourself" credence to a point, but mostly take care of others first with the mentality of doing things for others and doing things based on what others do for you.

From the ancient Greeks and Romans to present-day, there is an inverse relationship on the concept of self. Ancient Greeks and Romans believed that by taking care of yourself plus whatever else, you end up knowing yourself, whereas today by knowing yourself, you end up taking care of yourself. So my question to fellow bloggers out there is this: Based on the concepts we broke down earlier, which mentality would work best in today's world if people were given the choice?