Biopower and Education: Self-Care, Subject and Truth

Abstract

Our thesis here is that the relation between bio-power and education is found in the care of oneself, the subject and truth. We consider bio-power to be one’s self-government/discipline and that of others and that this discipline is possible in the subject-truth relation just as it is in one’s selfcare. The questions that guide our reflections are: What is education in the sense of biopower? How does one constitute the subject in relation to oneself, in relation to others and truth? According to Foucault, biopower is a form of the “exercise of power” that has as its objective the biological life of the human; it is the exercise of power over the bodies of the individuals. Such exercise might exist in the self-care practices (epimeleia heautou) just as in the practices of “truth-telling” (parresia).

Keywords

• Biopower
• Self-care
• Truth
• Subject