The Condition of Stultitia

Michel Foucault: lecture 7 (p.125-144)
Seneca letter #52 & De Tranquillitate
Stultitia is defined by the nonrelationship to the self.
The stultus is essentially someone who does not will , who does not will himself, who does not want the self, whose will is not directed towards the only object one can freely will: one self. In stultitia there is a disconnection between the will and the self. The will of the stultus is not a free will, a will that does not always will. Free will means willing without what it is that one wills being determined by this or that event, this or that representation, and the stultus is determined by what comes from both outside and inside. The stultus wants several things at once, and these are divergent without being contradictory. So he does not want one and only one thing absolutely.

The stultus wants something and at the same time regrets it. The stultus wants glory and, and at the same time, regrets not leading a peaceful life. The will is constantly interrepted and changes its objective.

The stultus is someone who remembers nothing, who lets his life pass by, who does not try to restore unity to his life, who does not direct his attention and will to a precise and well-determined end. The stultus lets life pass by and constantly changes his viewpoint. Hence stultus is constantly changing his way of life. According to Seneca, nothing is more harmful than changing one's mode of life according to one's age. In reality one must dirct one's life as quickly as possible towards its objective, which is the fulfillment of the self in old age.

"Hasten to be old," old age is the point of orientation that enables life to be set in a single unity.

From De Tranquillitate: stultus is unable to will properly because of his openness to representations coming from the external world, and of this being dipersed in time.

Stultitia is something that is not settled on anything and not satisfied by anything. No one in such good health that he can get out of this condition by himself. Someone myst lend him a hand and pull him out. The need for a master. What is this morbid, pathological condition one must rise above?

sapientia: the one who has achieved a relationship of self-control, self-possession, and pleasure in the self.

The only object that one can feely will, without having to take into consideration external determinations, is the self. What object can one will absolutely is the self.