Subjectivity, Desire and Bios in the Foucaultian Reading of Modernity

This article deals with Foucault's critique of the categories that, in the nineteenth century, sought to organize the historical study of modern subjectivity. In particular, in the course given at the College de France in 1980-1 Subjectivite et Verite, Foucault distances himself from the notions of "Judeo-Christianity" and "paganism", which he considers categories of "self-analysis" of modernity, and calls for other keys of reading in order to compose his own genealogy of western morality. The hypothesis that we seek to test in this paper is that it is the notion of bios that serves to mobilize an expanded reading of the relationship between subjectivity and truth, as much as desire the experience that, around the various codifications of sexual morality, will provide the soul and the body to ensure the survival of the new dynamics of government.