Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy

Volume 10, 2018

Contemporary Philosophy

Elena Bolotnikova
Pages 31-34

Philosophy as Self-care

The paper states that an individual, once it has discovered the problem of meaning of its own existence, uses solutions offered by the cultur-al experience of civilization: religion or philosophy. The study of philosophy is understood, along with religious choice, as a way of self-care. Religion and philosophy are compared according to structural elements of self-care marked by Michel Foucault, such as: telos, ethical substance, mode of subjection and ascetic practices. The differences are confirmed by historical examples. In this paper I criticize the current state of social reality, that, due to the development of technology and communication strategies, complicate the interpretation of the individual’s own being. By facilitating transfer of any knowledge of the self and the world as a discursive mode, network tech-nology multiplies the hum of everyday life, making society the “silent ma-jority.” The original self-care isn’t focused on collecting “likes” and reposts on the net, but assumes motion in discursive/non-discursive knowledge area, thus creating the space where an individual realizes himself and his being.