Life is a characteristic of all living organisms, but only in humans can it be transformed into a bios, something that requires an art of life, a "self-care", which is one of the central themes of this book. In the second volume of his trilogy on the Politics of Life, Theophanes Tassis examines the space between the purely personal and the exclusively public, between the ethical and the political where this art can be practiced. His main question is the impact of the "imagistic" society, where the self gradually dissolves into an image, in the exercise of a reflective art of life, that is, in the individual's effort to create his own, unique way of life and, at the same time, to remain an active member of the world to which he belongs. In this important work, Tassis, knowledgeable in both philosophical tradition and technical evolution, creatively connects the issues of ancient Greek philosophy with contemporary society. He defends the Socratic principle, "the unexamined life is not worth living", but he places this examination in a necessary political framework.

Alexandros Nehamas, Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University