Technologies of the Self as Antidotes to Chaos: A Foucauldian Reading of White Deer Plain

Abstract

"for Neo-Confucians the recovery of the innate goodness in human nature becomes an important task in life, a task through which human beings can learn to be in accord with the Way of Heaven. In contrast, human nature per se is not an important issue in White Deer Plain. What is important to the author is not how human beings should look inward for seeds of moral behavior but how human beings should look outward for moral guidance. In view of this discrepancy, I would propose to approach White Deer Plain with the help of Michel Foucault’s views on the 'technologies of the self'....practices of freedom through which the Greeks constituted themselves according to certain models in their culture. Since citizens who cared for themselves correctly would behave correctly in relation to others and for others, the technologies of the self would contribute to good, stable government."