Account & Lists Account Returns & Orders. ISBN: 9781317546511. The answer for ancient philosophy is the passions. They lived it. First published in France in 1995, Hadot's overview of ancient philosophy (that is, Greek and Roman philosophy) is quite possibly one of the best one-volume works on the subject to have appeared in English in a very long time, not only for the clarity with which it is written (Chase's translation reads exceptionally smoothly) but also for the point of view Hadot takes. Philosophical dialogue exists for the sake of spiritual guidance. Retrouvez [(What is Ancient Philosophy?)] Skip to main content.sg. is a wonderful book. Hadot was a French scholar who published widely on ancient philosophy. His work in the Church led him to philosophy. In the author’s own words, “Philosophical discourse … originates in a choice of life and an existential option—not vice-versa … . One might also object to specific interpretive claims made by Hadot. It strives to persuade us to revise our view of philosophy—to think of philosophy, as the ancients did, as crucially involving a philosophical way of life.”—Michael Frede, Oxford University, “In its sweep and clarity of presentation, I would compare this book with some of the great syntheses of an earlier generation—for instance, Werner Jaeger’s Paideia. View: 752. Aristotle, according to Hadot’s account, founded the Lyceum on the model of the Academy—at least with the same ethical goal in mind, if not the same intellectual practices. It is the figure of Socrates, as “mythically” represented in Plato’s dialogues, who transforms the notion of sophia and hence that of philosophia. He sees that tradition of philosophy as largely composed of the Platonic Academy, Aristotle's school, Epicureanism and Stoicism. Finally, they would proceed to texts that were metaphysical or theological (or “epoptical,” e.g., the Parmenides or Philebus), to ascend to the contemplation of God or the Ultimate (e.g., the Good or the One). They would then progress to texts that were physical (e.g., the Timaeus) that pointed to a transcendent cause of the world’s order, to learn to transcend the physical world. Plato and the Academy (chapter 5). These assumptions are not supported by any evidence and seem to be derived from a widely shared tendency to read the mysticism of Plotinus back into the epistemologies of Plato and Aristotle. Pierre Hadot has contributed two exceptional works on philosophical practice, the second of which is an overview of ancient philosophy.1 Hadot’s main concern in his second book is to focus, not on “philosophies,” but rather on “philosophical modes of life.”2 In his own words, Philosophy is not wisdom, but a way of life and discourse determined by the idea of wisdom” (p. 46, italics in original). Perhaps he thinks that the various research projects conducted in the Lyceum were themselves such exercises. 75 and 76, and p. 88). It is because we cannot control our passions that we end up being miserable and unhappy. And his account of the practice of dialectic within the Academy as a “spiritual exercise which demanded that the interlocutors undergo … self-transformation” (p. 62) is hardly convincing. What is ancient philosophy? The prevailing modern view of limiting philosophy to philosophical discourse is rooted in this usurpation. Hadot’s association of Socrates with Kant in this respect (p. 36) is historically anachronistic and seriously misleading. Hadot was assigned to compulsory labor during World War II, and was ordained a priest in 1944 at the age of 22. Hadot takes ancient philosophy out of its customary realm of names, dates, and arid abstractions and plants it squarely in the thick of life. For Socrates the practice of philosophy presupposes and is motivated by one’s awareness that one is not wise, that one is lacking in something one vitally desires to possess or, more accurately, to be. Profound learning stylishly worn makes the whole book, and the whole sweep of philosophy’s first 1,000 years, accessible to any reader interested in what philosophy was like before it was taken over by the professors.”—Barry Allen, The Globe & Mail, “This is a stimulating book. Philosophy. 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