Why did Michel Foucault describe ethics as a reflective practice of freedom?

Michel Foucault defined ethics as a "reflective practice of freedom" because he viewed it as a domain where individuals could actively exercise their power to examine, test, and potentially reshape the modes of domination and subjectivation under which they live.1

In his later work, Foucault moved beyond his earlier focus on how power and knowledge—or pouvoir-savoir—shape individuals into "subjects" through discipline and biopolitics. By shifting his analytical lens toward "governmentality," he sought to understand how individuals are not merely passive objects of power but are capable of governing, being, and creating themselves.1

Ethics, in this context, involves the process of "problematization"—the act of posing questions and seeking answers about one's own existence and social conditions. Rather than adhering to a universal moral code, Foucault saw ethics as a local, reflective practice that allows human beings to navigate their historical circumstances and explore possibilities for increasing human capacities without simultaneously increasing oppression.12