Contributions of the care of the self (Michel Foucault) to the teaching of philosophy oriented by philosophical problems

Abstract

In this article, we initially address a panorama of the contemporary society, which presents itself as programmed for consumption and marked by the demands of a capitalist and neoliberal market. We aim to demonstrate how such characteristics influence and determine the construction of individuals' subjectivity. In this context, we analyze the consequences of these social configurations in the educational field, especially in the teaching of Philosophy. Furthermore, we seek to emphasize the way in which power relations are developed, essentially based on the oppressive character. As a proposal for the development of teaching practices in this scenario, so as not to reproduce the current model, whose objective is the construction of an efficient subject in terms of production, the indication is for a teaching of Philosophy by means of philosophical problems. This model, according to the philosopher Sílvio Gallo's conception, is one of the most adequate ways to provide students with the experience of critical thinking, thus escaping from a mechanistic teaching, which reproduces a system of control and normalization. Finally, we present the ethics of the Care of the Self, or the aesthetics of existence, based on the studies of Michel Foucault. In the light of this conception, we seek to analyze its possible contributions to the teaching of Philosophy, understood as a form of resistance to the practices created by modern States with the objective of domesticating, subjugating and controlling individuals. We understand that the teaching of Philosophy becomes a liberating praxis, one that awakens the subjects’ critical, creative and reflective thinking, so as to become a form of resistance facing the logic of control and alienation of subjectivities.