Negotiating the Affordance of Greco-Roman Spiritual Exercise for Community Flourishing: From and beyond Foucauldian Care of the Self
The worldwide launch of neoliberalism ushered everyone into an atomized society. Neoliberalism transforms Homo sapiens into Homo economicus, a narcissistic self-entrepreneur that positions their body as a factory, skills as resources, and earnings as products while relying less on others. Such atomi...
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| Published in: | Religions |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Articles |
| Published: |
2024
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View article (DOI: 10.3390/rel15101215) |
| _version_ | 1877637432314167296 |
|---|---|
| author | Li, Yulong Chen, Zhen |
| author_autocomplete | Li, Yulong Chen, Zhen |
| author_browse | Chen, Zhen Li, Yulong |
| author_facet | Li, Yulong Chen, Zhen Li, Yulong Chen, Zhen |
| author_sort | Li, Yulong |
| container_issue | 10 |
| container_issue_str | 10 |
| container_title | Religions |
| container_title_str | Religions |
| container_volume | 15 |
| container_volume_str | 15 |
| description | The worldwide launch of neoliberalism ushered everyone into an atomized society. Neoliberalism transforms Homo sapiens into Homo economicus, a narcissistic self-entrepreneur that positions their body as a factory, skills as resources, and earnings as products while relying less on others. Such atomization of individuals undermines the community. Following the Cartesian moment, enlightenment, and postmodernism’s later wave, the world is disenchanted, deprived of unity in the form of community fragmentation. Foucault offered a Greco–Roman philosophical remedy for contemporary society, focusing on the formulation of ‘Spiritual-Corporality’ through the practice of care of the self. Foucault believed the one who takes good care of himself is often self-assured of his ability, expectations, and missions in relationships with others, he does not resort to tyranny in those relationships, giving him an ethical advantage in caring for his family and fellow citizens. If everyone strives to take care of themselves, the city-state will prosper. However, Foucault relied on Stoic philosophy over other ancient schools and failed to provide concrete practices on how to bind ourselves with others through care of the self. In partial agreement with Foucault, the present study chooses Hadot’s spiritual exercise as a more accurate terminology to justify Greco–Roman philosophies’ affordance to contemporary social unification. After reviewing the philosophies of Aristotle, the Stoics, and Epicurus, the present study selected the spiritual exercises of ‘hitting the mean as deliberation’, ‘reframing of self’, and ‘thinking outside the box’ as suitable practices for community flourishing. |
| doi_str_mv | 10.3390/rel15101215 |
| first_indexed | 2026-09-29T04:00:29Z |
| format | Articles |
| genre | Articles |
| genre_facet | Articles |
| id | zotero-XW78G8JR |
| institution | zotero_group |
| issn | 2077-1444 |
| last_indexed | 2026-09-29T04:00:29Z |
| latest_content_date | 2026-09-29T04:00:29Z |
| physical | 1215 |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publishDateRange | 2024 |
| publishDateSort | 2024 |
| record_format | zotero |
| spelling | Negotiating the Affordance of Greco-Roman Spiritual Exercise for Community Flourishing: From and beyond Foucauldian Care of the Self The worldwide launch of neoliberalism ushered everyone into an atomized society. Neoliberalism transforms Homo sapiens into Homo economicus, a narcissistic self-entrepreneur that positions their body as a factory, skills as resources, and earnings as products while relying less on others. Such atomization of individuals undermines the community. Following the Cartesian moment, enlightenment, and postmodernism’s later wave, the world is disenchanted, deprived of unity in the form of community fragmentation. Foucault offered a Greco–Roman philosophical remedy for contemporary society, focusing on the formulation of ‘Spiritual-Corporality’ through the practice of care of the self. Foucault believed the one who takes good care of himself is often self-assured of his ability, expectations, and missions in relationships with others, he does not resort to tyranny in those relationships, giving him an ethical advantage in caring for his family and fellow citizens. If everyone strives to take care of themselves, the city-state will prosper. However, Foucault relied on Stoic philosophy over other ancient schools and failed to provide concrete practices on how to bind ourselves with others through care of the self. In partial agreement with Foucault, the present study chooses Hadot’s spiritual exercise as a more accurate terminology to justify Greco–Roman philosophies’ affordance to contemporary social unification. After reviewing the philosophies of Aristotle, the Stoics, and Epicurus, the present study selected the spiritual exercises of ‘hitting the mean as deliberation’, ‘reframing of self’, and ‘thinking outside the box’ as suitable practices for community flourishing. Religions Articles 2024 Foucault Hadot care of the self community flourishing spiritual exercise Li, Yulong Chen, Zhen |
| spellingShingle | Negotiating the Affordance of Greco-Roman Spiritual Exercise for Community Flourishing: From and beyond Foucauldian Care of the Self Li, Yulong Chen, Zhen Foucault Hadot care of the self community flourishing spiritual exercise |
| title | Negotiating the Affordance of Greco-Roman Spiritual Exercise for Community Flourishing: From and beyond Foucauldian Care of the Self |
| title_autocomplete | Negotiating the Affordance of Greco-Roman Spiritual Exercise for Community Flourishing: From and beyond Foucauldian Care of the Self |
| title_full | Negotiating the Affordance of Greco-Roman Spiritual Exercise for Community Flourishing: From and beyond Foucauldian Care of the Self |
| title_fullStr | Negotiating the Affordance of Greco-Roman Spiritual Exercise for Community Flourishing: From and beyond Foucauldian Care of the Self |
| title_full_unstemmed | Negotiating the Affordance of Greco-Roman Spiritual Exercise for Community Flourishing: From and beyond Foucauldian Care of the Self |
| title_short | Negotiating the Affordance of Greco-Roman Spiritual Exercise for Community Flourishing: From and beyond Foucauldian Care of the Self |
| title_sort | negotiating the affordance of greco-roman spiritual exercise for community flourishing: from and beyond foucauldian care of the self |
| topic | Foucault Hadot care of the self community flourishing spiritual exercise |
| topic_autocomplete | Foucault Hadot care of the self community flourishing spiritual exercise |
| topic_facet | Foucault Hadot care of the self community flourishing spiritual exercise |