Abstract

In the perspective of the notion of modernity advanced by Jürgen Habermas, the dynamics of our contemporary world can be identified along the terms of expert knowledge, critical thought, and practical application. While a high-quality expertise is necessary for the solution of any challenging particular problem, an additional type of knowledge associated with critical thinking is indispensable for its adequate application in practice. In line with Habermas’ view of the role of philosophy in modernity as a “mediator” between the spheres of theory and practice, we can identify this additional knowledge as being in its nature philosophical. Furthermore, in distinction from the knowledge of the specialized expertise, this philosophical knowledge can be described as having the character of competence. In this sense, I maintain that thinking critically consists in utilizing philosophical competence, alongside expert knowledge, in solving particular problems. I link this notion of modernity with Michel Foucault’s investigations on what he calls “technologies of the self.” Foucault has traced various forms of self-care and self-knowledge, and has indicated their importance in “the art of living" (tekhne tou biou) from Antiquity onwards. He has emphasized their productive relationship in self-cultivation and social life adding a voice to Nietzsche’s concern that the modern Westerners have neglected the “great and rare art“ of self-creation for the sake of self-knowledge. In my view, this Foucauldian sense of the art of living as self-creation can supplement the Habermasean notion of the mediating role of philosophy in modernity, as they can be both seen as forming distinctive aspects of what was termed philosophical competence. I maintain that in the general case one’s philosophical competence is essentially self-knowledge powered by one’s background of humanistic knowledge and that – in a line with a long tradition of thought – it is a subject of cultivation and active self-creation.