The constitution of an “ourselves” from the criticisms to modern humanism

Michel Foucault and the possibilities of a “current ourselves”

Abstract

European modernity postulates the individual as an original anthropological figure, the basis of the social dimension. In this context where the “self” is the unfailing starting point, the constitution of an “ourselves” is presented as a specifically modern problem that finds humanism as the main answer. But that humanism, which managed to work for several centuries, seems today to have gone into a crisis challenged by accusations of acting as the hypostatized universalization of a set of particularities. This article intends to recover some of the criticisms directed towards modern humanism and its implications regarding the constitution of an “ourselves” as a philosophical problem. Seeking this objective, it takes into consideration the contributions of Michel Foucault, an author in whom several posthumanist tendencies are referenced. The assumptions and implications of the “critical ontology of ourselves” that Foucault proposes from his interpretations of Kant are analyzed, questioning those perspectives that derive from the “death of man” a denial, impugnment or abandonment of the universal. Finally, the article explores the possibilities of understanding the notion of a “current ourselves” as a modality that aspires to distance itself from the limits of modern humanism.