In the final phase of his work, Michel Foucault devoted himself with passion and meticulousness to the study of ancient texts, wresting the classical models of a life-practical "care for oneself" and "aesthetics of existence" from historical oblivion. In the small texts and interviews of the same period that the selection volume gathers, Foucault makes the risky and fascinating attempt to update these ancient figures of thought. The all-decisive question for Foucault is this: can there be a way of life today that is not determined by knowledge and norms, but that is an experiment and understands life as art?