FOR AN ARTISTIC EXISTENCE. ETHICS AND AESTHETICS IN NIETZSCHE AND FOUCAULT

Nietzsche's reflection on ethical problems has several objectives: the psychological dissection of the contradictions of the herd's morality (Human, All Too Human); the fidelity to the singularity of each one (The Gay Science); the antagonism between "masters" and "slaves" (On the Genealogy of Morality); the unconditional affirmation of the eternal return (Thus Spoke Zarathustra); the imperative of tragic self-overcoming (Ecce Homo). Foucault's approach to individual behavior, in turn, covers the Greco-Roman culture in order to formulate the basis of what would be a "beautiful life". He aims to circumscribe a whole set of "technologies of the self" which allow the invention of innovative kinds of government of itself and the others in the modernity. Despite the specificity of the philosophical project of each one, the two authors have as common denominator the imperative of promoting an artistic existence.