The writing of the self from a materialist perspective us a revalorization of the philosophical practice

Abstract

In this text, I aim to question the usual notion we have of philosophical academic writing and propose a more classical approach. Writing is often used as a means of communicating previous research or experiences, but what if we were to consider writing as an exercise of active thought and self-formation? Writing of the self is not a literature of the self or an autobiography, but rather a concrete material mode of self-constitution through the gathering of discourses and teachings from others (masters, legacies, traditions). Therefore, I wish to reclaim this practical function of writing of the self, as advocated by Foucault and Hadot in their study of the ancients, and promote it as an ethos or even a contemporary method of thinking. Finally, I propose some concrete meditations for practice. The aim of this text is to revalorize academic writing not only as a communication of the state of knowledge but as a rigorous and liberating exercise in self-construction.