The phrase "to make of one's life a work of art" has become a slogan. It is time to put it into question. If one goes back to Aristotle's distinction between action and production, praxis and poiesis, then this phrase will sound like a category mix up. Can we think of life in terms of production? And if the production implied is the artistic one, what does it mean to think of life from an aesthetic point of view? Isn't one led to examine the tensions arising between aesthetics ethics and moral? Finally, "to make of one's life a work of art" entails that life should be first made the object of a narrative form in order to be evaluated: this is the reason why we are led - following here Paul Ricoeur (1984-1985)- to examine the dilemmas raised by the writing of the self.
Life Narrative; Bildungroman; Formation; Moral; Aesthetic; Ethics