Michel Foucault's lecture "Hermeneutics of the Subject," which he delivered at the Collège de France in 1981/82, was a controversial and influential event. In this lecture, Foucault outlined the historical and theoretical foundations of one of his most impactful concepts: the care of the self. The design of an aesthetics of existence takes shape in Foucault's subtle interpretation of classical ancient texts. His reading of canonical texts by Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Epicurus, and Seneca aims at a new theory of the subject that is not limited to a historical reconstruction but seeks to gain a different historical perspective on the constitution of the modern subject: on the way we relate to ourselves as subjects. This simultaneously opens up a new view on the political struggles of the present.