Philosophy as a way of life : ancients and moderns : essays in honor of Pierre Hadot

356 Pages·2013·16.14 MB·English

by  Pierre Hadot

Edited by
Michael Chase, Stephen R. L. Clark,
and Michael McGhee
Philosophy
as a Way of Life
Ancients and Moderns
Essays in Honor of Pierre Hadot

Philosophy as a Way of Life

Philosophy as a Way of Life
Ancients and Moderns
Essays in Honor of Pierre Hadot
Edited by
Michael Chase
Stephen R. L. Clark
Michael McGhee
Thiseditionfirstpublished2013
(cid:2)C 2013JohnWiley&Sons,Ltd.
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Philosophyasawayoflife:ancientsandmoderns:essaysinhonorofPierreHadot/
editedbyMichaelChase,StephenR.L.Clark,MichaelMcGhee.
pagescm
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-1-4051-6161-9(cloth)
1.Philosophy. 2.Philosophy–History. 3.Spiritualexercises–History. 4.Hadot,
Pierre. 5.Hadot,Pierre.Exercicesspirituelsetphilosophieantique. I.Hadot,
Pierre. II.Chase,Michael,1959–editorofcompilation.
B53.P4982013
190–dc23
2013012717
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
Coverimage:ViewfromGlastonburyTor(cid:2)C GuyEdwardes/GettyImages.
CoverdesignbyCyanDesign.
Setin10/12.5ptPlantinbyAptaraInc.,NewDelhi,India
1 2013
Contents
NotesonContributors vii
ForewordbyJohnH.Spencer xiii
1 Introduction 1
MichaelChase
2 AncientPhilosophers:AFirstStatisticalSurvey 10
RichardGoulet
(Colorplatesectionisbetweenpage32and33)
3 PhilosophyasaWayofLife:AsTextualandMoreThan
TextualPractice 40
RichardShusterman
4 CharismaticAuthority,SpiritualGuidance,andWayofLife
inthePythagoreanTradition 57
ConstantinosMacris
5 Alcibiades’Love 84
JanZwicky
6 StoicsandBodhisattvas:SpiritualExerciseandFaithin
TwoPhilosophicalTraditions 99
MatthewT.Kapstein
vi Contents
7 PhilosophyasaWayofLife:SpiritualExercisesfromthe
BuddhatoTagore 116
JonardonGaneri
8 ApproachingIslamicPhilosophicalTexts:ReadingMulla¯
S.adra¯ Sˇ¯ıra¯z¯ı(d.1635)withPierreHadot 132
SajjadH.Rizvi
9 PhilosophyandSelf-improvement:ContinuityandChange
inPhilosophy’sSelf-conceptionfromtheClassicaltothe
Early-modernEra 148
JohnCottingham
10 Descartes’Meditations:PracticalMetaphysics:TheFather
ofRationalismintheTraditionofSpiritualExercises 167
TheodorKobusch
11 LeadingaPhilosophicalLifeinDarkTimes:TheCaseof
LeonardNelsonandHisFollowers 184
FernandoLeal
12 PhilosophyasaWayofLifeandAnti-philosophy 210
Gwenae¨lleAubry
13 PhilosophyandGestaltPsychotherapy 223
PaulO’Grady
14 Wittgenstein’sTemple:OrHowCoolisPhilosophy? 241
MichaelMcGhee
15 ObservationsonPierreHadot’sConceptionofPhilosophy
asaWayofLife 262
MichaelChase
Bibliography 287
Index 311
Notes on Contributors
Gwenae¨lleAubry
Former Student of the Ecole Normale Supe´rieure (Ulm) and of Trin-
ity College (Cambridge); Agre´ge´e, docteur en philosophie. Researcher
at the CNRS (UPR 76/Centre Jean Pe´pin). Research interests: Ancient
Philosophy and its Contemporary Receptions. Major published work:
Plotin. Traite´ 53 (I, 1). Introduction, traduction, commentaire et notes,
Paris, Cerf, Collection “Les Ecrits de Plotin” 2004; Dieu sans la puis-
sance.DunamisetEnergeiachezAristoteetchezPlotin,Paris,Vrin,“Bib-
liothe`que d’histoire de la philosophie” 2006; L’Excellence de la vie. Sur
l’Ethique a` Nicomaque et l’Ethique a` Eude`me d’Aristote, G. Romeyer
Dherbey dir., G. Aubry e´d., Paris, Vrin, “Bibliothe`que d’histoire de la
philosophie”2002;Lemoietl’inte´riorite´.Etudesre´uniesparG.Aubryet
F.Ildefonse,Paris,Vrin,“TextesetTraditions”2008.
MichaelChase
AftertakingdegreesinPhilosophyandClassicsattheUniversityofVicto-
ria,Canada,MichaelChasewasawardedaCanadiangovernmentschol-
arship to study Neoplatonism under Pierre Hadot at the Section des
SciencesReligieusesoftheE´colePratiquedesHautesE´tudes,Paris(Sor-
bonne),whencehereceivedhisPhDin2000.Since2001,hehasworked
attheFrenchNationalCenterofScientificResearch(CNRS),wherehe
iscurrentlyResearcherinancientphilosophyattheUPR76/CentreJean
Pe´pininVillejuif-Paris.InadditiontoEnglishtranslationsofhalfadozen
booksbyPierreHadot,hehaspublishedwidelyonLateGreekandLatin
Neoplatonism,Patristics,Islamic,andMedievalthought.
viii NotesonContributors
JohnCottingham
Professorial Research Fellow at Heythrop College, University of Lon-
don, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Reading,
and an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford. He is an author-
ityonearly-modernphilosophy,especiallyDescartes,andhaspublished
widely on moral philosophy and the philosophy of religion. His recent
titles include On the Meaning of Life (Routledge 2003), The Spiritual
Dimension(CUP2005),CartesianReflections(OUP2008),andWhyBe-
lieve?(Continuum2009).Heiseditoroftheinternationalphilosophical
journalRatio.
JonardonGaneri
His work has focused on a retrieval of the Sanskrit philosophical tradi-
tion in relation to contemporary analytical philosophy, and he has done
workinthisveinontheoriesofself,conceptsofrationality,andthephi-
losophy of language, as well as on the idea of philosophy as a practice
anditsrelationshipwithliterature.HeisProfessorofPhilosophyatboth
the University of Sussex and Monash University, a visiting scholar at
Kyunghee University Seoul, and a visiting professor at JNU Delhi. His
majorrecentpublicationsincludeTheSelf:Naturalism,Consciousnessand
the First-Person Stance (OUP 2012), The Lost Age of Reason: Philosophy
in Early Modern India 1450–1700CE (OUP 2011), and The Concealed
Art of the Soul: Theories of Self and Practices of Truth in Indian Ethics and
Epistemology(OUP2012,2ndedition).
RichardGoulet
Emeritus Research Fellow at French Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique, editor of the Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques (sixth and
final volume,forlettersS–Z,tobepublishedin2013).Worksonphilo-
sophicalprosopography,lateantiquelivesofphilosophers,stoicphiloso-
phy;edited,translatedorstudiedtextsofCleomedes,DiogenesLaertius,
Eunapius,MacariusofMagnesia,andPorphyry.
MatthewT.Kapstein
Director of Tibetan Studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes,
Paris, and Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies at the Uni-
versity of Chicago. His publications include The Tibetan Assimilation of