This paper discusses the notion of self-care, in Foucault's later thought, unfolding an ontology still not fitting in our pedagogical reflections: an ontology of yourself, a key notion of Western thought which underlies important issues such as the relationship between the subject and truth. It discusses the reasons why a discussion on the self remains absent of Foucault studies. First we present a brief discussion of the recent reception of Foucault's thinking in the Brazilian educational field, identifying a new movement of appropriation of his ideas that at the same time, surpasses and amplifies the crystallized images of Foucault as a theorist of power, an anti-humanist and a nihilist harmful to critical educational theory. Secondly, we study his analysis of care focusing on the notion of himself in order to draw implications for the pedagogical debate concerning human formation.
Care of self; ontology of self; human formation