Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault

This is one of the best books that I have read in quite some time. Focused mostly on the Hellenistic era but also going as far back as Socrates and as far forward as Nietzsche and Foucault. The book seeks to elucidate philo-sophy (love of wisdom) not as a rarefied field of study but as a way of life consistent with making us one with the universe. The book, originally in French, is not a light-weight self help book as its title may imply. But is instead a deep study of the origins of "spiritual exercises" from Socrates to the Hellenists (Stoicism, Epicureanism, and neo-Platonism) and onward to the early Christians. Hadot's main thesis is that philosophy has been gutted in the modern era to focus on rarefied discourse and study at the expense of it serving as an aid in helping us to lead better lives. Using abundant examples from the likes of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, Hadot makes a significant and resounding case for a re-emergence of philosophy from the walls of academia, where it has been penned and chained for the last 1500 years. While knowledge of ancient philosophy is not strictly required for reading this book, those with this knowledge will get the most from it. I have studied the Stoics and Epicureans about as much as is possible for a layman, and I found this book indispensable in making clear the teachings of Epicurus and Zeno, as well as the early Christian scholars. Hadot shows clearly that the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius are grounded in philosophy going back at least as far as Socrates. I recommend this book in the most high fashion to anyone who seeks wisdom and loves a good mental workout.

I am not sure this is the best introduction to Hadot's approach to philosophy. "What is Ancient Philosophy?" is more of one piece. Which makes sense because what we have in this book is a collection of articles, addresses and an interview that have been loosely woven together. But this volume has some particular strengths. Arnold Davidson's introduction is brilliant. He manages to introduces the main themes of investigation throughout Hadot's life (Hadot passed away just a few months ago). Davidson also makes it clear that Hadot's insights into ancient philosophy are based on his work as a translator of works from that period. Another strength is that many of the articles collected here show off the extraordinary cultural learning of Hadot. I remarked in my review of "What is Ancient Philosophy?" that reading Hadot is to be introduced to the work of generations of French and German scholars of whom most Americans know nothing (would someone please translate Groethuyson's "Anthropologie philosophique" for me? Please?) But in this book, Hadot also demonstrates his remarkable grasp of such diverse thinkers as Nietzsche, Montaigne, Goethe, Wittgenstein, Merleau-Ponty and Foucault. I always walk away from reading Hadot feeling as if I am both the Nitwit of Western Culture and exhilarated by some of the connections that he has made. Hadot is particularly famous in France for his work as a translator/commentator of Plotinus and Marcus Aurelius. Early textual work on those two and other philosophers led Hadot to the realization that many of the works of the Hellenistic period were being misunderstood because today's interpreters were not seeing these works for what they were. Today's philosophers, for the most part, write dissertations that try to lay out exactly what the author wants to say. The work is usually directed toward a professional audience or, at least, toward expert amateurs. The intent is to inform and convince. Hadot's central insight into Hellenistic philosophy is that, for most of the writings that we have extant, the intent is to (re)form, not to inform. In other words, this is philosophy that is meant to change the way we live. More deeply, it is meant to change the way we see the world, the way we feel about our lives and the way we treat each other. As such, the types of writings that we have from this period have to be understood for the literary types that they are; exhortations to oneself to remember the main dicta that one has learned or rhetorical works designed to convince the uninitiated to follow the path of a particular philosophical school, etc. What is so immediately convincing about this point is that it makes sense of all the repetitions, contradictions and eclecticism which is so evident in the writings of some of the ancients. The first article in this collection explores how the failure of recent interpreters to understand this aspect of ancient philosophical literature has led to many misinterpretations (although Hadot is careful to point out that some of the misreadings have been very fruitful). The Second Part of this book may be the best. This contains Hadot's classic article on "Spiritual Exercises". In this article, Hadot first outlined his realization that many of the writings of the Hellenistic philosophers were really meant to be read as exercises that would help instill in the philosopher the teachings of that particular school. I have become convinced from my own readings that he is absolutely right about the necessity of this approach. If you want to understand your reading of Seneca, of Marcus Aurelius, of Cicero, Epictetus and even of the earlier Greeks (like, you know- that Plato guy), you simply have to read this article. Hadot discusses one other idea in these articles that must be mentioned and that is his idea of the topos or topics of Western culture/philosophy. These are "formulae, images, and metaphors"(p.66) that have, over time, proved indispensable to many thinkers within a tradition or our culture. Hadot spent the last part of his life tracing the cultural history of some of these topics. His last book, "The Veil of Isis", is one such investigation. Several of the later articles in this collection are others. "The View from Above" is one of them and briefly traces some of the history of the exercise of learning to look down at humanity from a cosmic viewpoint. I would also like to recommend the short article "The Sage and the World" wherein Hadot defends the relevance of the lessons he has learned from ancient philosophy to our own lived-in world. It's funny. There are many similarities (as well as enormous differences) between Hadot and Leo Strauss. I think they would have found much to talk about with each other. One of the things they both emphasized was the idea of the difference between the sage and the philosopher. The sage was seen in Hellenistic times as the fully realized wise man. Let us just say there are few of those. The philosopher, on the other hand, was she who chased after wisdom as something loved. I like this idea. Among other things, it brings out the theme of the erotic which is so present in ancient philosophy. Well, my friends, Pierre Hadot was a philosopher. In his books, he not only chases after wisdom, he entices us to do so as well. In doing so, he makes this reader, at least, examine my own way of being in the world. For me, reading Hadot had been to hold up a mirror to my own life and to realize the need for a spiritual exercise program. I gots some work to do.

I think this is a fantastic book - well written in clear language with extensive notes, bibliography and extensive references. Anyone who thinks philosophy is there to create a system that answers all or many fundamental questions should read this book as well as scholars of philosophy. Hadot shows that many philosophical schools taught that philosophy was intended to develop the inner, spiritual consciousness of the student rather than provide stock answers to the problems of living. Highly recommended!!

Recontextualizes the role of imagination and reason in ancient philosphy as spiritual excercies, thus restoring the diagnostic and theraputic role that ancient philosophy had.

Always be learning

This is a well written and important book - and deserves 5 stars. Liked it so much after I read the printed book, also ordered a copy on Kindle - which unfortunately turns out to be unreadable. The digital copy is riddled with spelling errors, missing text, etc. I've included an image of a sample page. So - book itself - 5 stars. Kindle edition - useless.

Hadot attempts to explain, how philosophy can be used in everyday life. Ancient philosophy was never meant to be, an abstract field of study. The ancient Stoic and Epicurean teachers, layed out practical instructions on how to approach life. The various essays in the book, outline the best methods for achieving the love of wisdom. Hadot draws on a long list, of both age-old and modern philosphers. Hadot then brings together, the best of these philosphers advice and understandings. This book will serve as a great introduction, to Stoic and Epicurean philosophy. Hadot provides plenty of footnotes, for anyone interested in more extensive research.

Started the Ki dle ve sion but q111ckly re quested a refund. Absol1111tely litter ed wi h spell1n erro'rs and weir'd unintelli1111111 text. See screenshot from foreword. I skipped ahead to see if it gets better later in the book, but it doesn't. What a shame.

This book could be seen as something of a follow on from Hadot's more introductory level work What is Ancient Philosophy? , with a more academic slant but still entirely readable. As with that other work, the focus of the essays here is the fact that ancient philosophy of whatever school was something to be lived, not merely theorised about, an approach which was largely lost at the end of antiquity. This should be essential reading, indeed first on the reading list, for anyone studying or having an interest in philosophy.

This is a really excellent introduction to what philosophy is all about. Hadot gets to the heart of subject and so creates a challenge, for everyone who reads this book - to either view the subject as an academic exercise in the creation of complex arguments or, alternatively, to use the subject to understand one's self.

Super super excellent.