Care of the self and ethics for the other:  from a genealogy of asceticisms to the critique of the subject
This fellowship will draw together Western and Chinese theories and literatures to develop a truly comprehensive genealogy of asceticism, and will explore how this expanded understanding of ascetic practice can enhance contemporary therapeutic practices.  It will examine the relationship between the idea of the “care of the self,” whose early Western genealogy was explored by 20th Century thinker Michel Foucault, and an ethics of concern for the other as developed in Chinese traditions, with a view to surmounting the solipsism that seems to plague Foucault’s ethics of transgression. This fellowship will be hosted by Royal Holloway University of London (RHUL) under the supervision of Prof. Nathan Widder.