La Vrai Vie
Foucault a dit:
“S’il y en a parmi vous qui s’intéressent à ce problème [de la vrai vie], eh bien qu’ils l’étudient de plus près. -La Courage de la Vérité, 151 (29 Février 1984)
I can’t help but wonder who in the audience, hearing this, knowing that Foucault was sick (and only a few months later learning of his death), knew then or resolved themselves to take up just this question. Who, hearing this, decided to, and truly did, devote their lives, academic or otherwise, to understanding, knowing, perhaps even enacting la vrai vie. To do it in the academic context alone, the personal one aside, is an enormous challenge (Hadot–and James for that matter–said don’t even bother), and I hope those of us who care enough about it to make that attempt, even if that attempt is buried beneath layers and layers of academic cover-stories and game-playing, can succeed even in the smallest measure.