GIVING STYLE TO ONE’S CHARACTER: NIETZSCHE & FOUCAULT ON SELF-ARTISTRY

Friedrich Nietzsche's experimentations of thought in the Gay Science postulate the only needful thing to do – to give ‘style' to one's character. His ethical thinking, bound by its relations to aesthetics and the nihilism that counteracts as the backdrop of his thoughts, affirms the continuity that goes beyond morality, or in his words, beyond good and evil. Nietzsche owes from the Greeks the aesthetics that shapes his thought in contrast to modernity's sublime. Michel Foucault takes over from this thinking, critiques modernity, and conceives of freedom for a new ethics. Incidentally, self-artistry is one commonality that sustains both thinkers' Hellenic heritage of thought. What this paper intends to do is to juxtapose Nietzsche and Foucault concerning the topic on self-artistry. As such, it uses textual analysis on their works while crosschecking other sources. Both thinkers find self-artistry as having a critical importance in shaping not only of oneself but also of society.