Images of Preparation: from Greek ethics to contemporary formativity

Abstract

The article analyzes preparation policies, which entail a change in the comprehension, perceptions and dispositions of subjects through the idea of “elaboration of the self”. It deals with different takes on the idea of preparation, based on articles published in the Brazilian magazine Veja, and on meanings of preparation coming from the Foucauldian studies on Hellenic, Christian and neoliberal cultures. The analysis points to a Christian-neoliberal continuity in the construction of the contemporary notion of preparation which, indifferent to the aesthetics involved in the preparation of the self even among the ancient Greeks, constitutes itself upon an eminently labor-based nature that transforms the search for a full life into desires for a viable existence in market terms.