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Philosophy as a Way of Life: Ancients and Moderns - Essays in Honor of Pierre Hadot by Pierre Hadot
thejdizzler's review against another edition
5.0
“Such is the lesson of ancient philosophy: an invitation to each human being to transform himself. Philosophy is a conversion, a transformation of one’s way of being and living, and a quest for wisdom. This is not an easy matter”. (PaWoL, pg . 275).
I’ve always been interested in practical applications of things, even if my path in life has led me away from practical pursuits towards basic science and theory (perhaps this is why I often find myself unsatisfied at my job). For this reason, up until my 22nd year of life, philosophy did not hold much appeal to me: I found there to be too much of a focus on theory and abstraction, building a self-consistent logical system for how the world worked and should work. I found these ideas to be fun to discuss or listen to podcasts about but was unwilling to engage with them on a deeper level. Self-consistent moral frameworks are all well and good, but if they’re being generated by people who I don’t consider to be particularly good at living their own lives, or even help me to live my own better, then what did I care? To me, the road to a good life seemed to be through materialism, and then in the early years of college, through Eastern insight meditation.
I still think Buddhism, and Buddhist adjacent Western practices have a lot to offer society (they are certainly much better than the blind materialist narcissism that passes for a way of life in most of society). However, around my junior year of college, through the first year of grad school, I became increasingly uncomfortable with Buddhism due to innate cultural differences that made me feel like I was an outsider and fraud, as well as a profound feeling of emptiness that filled me during some meditations sessions. I began to look elsewhere for more familiar spiritual traditions, and stumbled upon Meditations by Marcus Aurelius before my senior year when I was living in Israel. I’d like to say I found the book in a store in Jerusalem, but in all likelihood I actually probably found it on reddit.
That special book is much discussed here by Hadot (and elsewhere), and for me Meditations holds no lower of a place in my heart than it does for Hadot. In writing for his own self-improvement, and not intending his writings to be read by anyone else, Marcus’ words still manage to masterfully link stoic physics (grand overarching theory about the construction of the universe) and ethics (how to live one’s life) in short and pithy phrases and paragraphs. Meditations made me realize for the first time that philosophy could be more than theory, and actually had immense practical value, and the floodgates of my interest were opened. I’ve since read Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, Adam Smith, Ibn Khaldun and see no end in sight to my philosophical journey.
A reread of meditations in early 2021 soured me on Marcus a little bit, due to my perception of his writing, and that of the other stoics being a little too grim and nihilistic, and I did not pick an interest in stoicism back up until the summer of 2022 after me and my girlfriend of 6 months (who I had really liked) had broken up. Rather than return to Meditations, I picked up Stoicism and the Art of Happiness by Donald Robertson, which is a modern attempt to combine cognitive behavioral therapy with the ancient stoic texts of Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. Stoicism and the Art of Happiness was a solid read that I would recommend to anyone new to stoicism, but I found myself frustrated at how much Robertson quoted this French guy, Pierre Hadot. Why don’t I just read him instead?
And so, after discovering that the university library did indeed have a copy of Philosophy as a Way of Life, I did.
Philosophy as a Way of Life delivers exactly what it says it is on the tin: a discussion of philosophy as a way of life. The central thesis of this book is that only through living our ethical systems can we find spiritual and material contentment The book is divided into four parts: the first describing the methods of analysis, the second spiritual exercises, the third specific ancient philosophical figures, and the final part, themes inherent in ancient philosophy as a whole.
The first part is a discussion on how we must think of philosophy, and the context in which much of western philosophy has been done since antiquity. We think of philosophy as a dialectic, that is a conversation or series of commentaries between sources. This approach can lead to problems: such as Augustine’s obsessive textual literalism, and the focus on the discussion as an end in of itself, rather than an exercise to improve one’s abilities to practice philosophy in the real world.
This leads directly into the second part where Hadot characterizes the purpose of much of the ancient, and early Christian philosophy that has come down to us from antiquity as either a record or instruction manual of spiritual exercises. Hadot divides these exercises into four categories: Learning to live, learning to dialogue, learning to die and learning to read. Here, he discusses the transformation of perspective required to be in alignment with the universe. This transformation is created by training the attention (in a very Buddhist way), memorizing sayings, and creating habits. Conscious acts of altering your behavior, not just an attempt to understand a text. I especially enjoyed the specific sections about dialouge, which focused on the socratic dismantling of knowledge, and the section on learning to read: to not try so hard and really let the text speak to you. Hadot also has an interesting critique of Christianity here, namely that it stole a lot of its practical wisdom and exercises and tacked it on to the gospel messages. I don’t disagree with this critique, but church is pretty much the only place in society one can go to even get even these messages anymore, so it’s what I’ll have to live with.
The third section talks about two specific figures in ancient philosophy: Socrates and Marcus Aurelius. Socrates is portrayed as an almost Jesus-like figure in this section, although the traits emphasized are rather different. Socrates is an absurd character, even down to his alleged physical appearance, and doesn’t seem to take life too seriously (reminded a little of the modern internet troll). However, like Jesus, he seems to embody near perfect virtue, at least as far as a man, rather than a god, can. I also really enjoyed the discussion of Marcus Aurelius. Most of this chapter is dedicated to refuting foul rumors and misconceptions about the Roman Emperor, such that he suffered depression or was an opium addict. Hadot argues that the dour tone that some, including me, identify in Marcus’s writings is a misreading. These are spiritual exercises, intended to remind the emperor of certain things. That does not mean that is the way he normally thinks. Also, there are many passages expressing joy in the proper functioning of the universe. I have begun to read Mediations again after reading this book, and found it much more palatable.
The final section was a pretty routine discussion of stoic ethics, and the fundamental ideas of aligning your intentions and actions with that of the universe, living in the present moment, and accepting what comes. Nothing particularly new for me, but Hadot does a good job of drawing on and explaining the key stoic texts. This is present throughout the whole book, and is one thing that I really appreciate about Hedot: he cites his sources in full, so you can see what they are actually saying, rather than necessarily what he wants you to think they said.
How I will be changing my life as a result of this book
I will still be converting to catholicism this Easter, even those this book brought up some doubts about whether I need to accept a lot of the theology in order to be a good Catholic. The dogmatic theological focus of catholicism has been a large problem for me, and it’s comforting to realize that focusing on the ethics (and divine salvation of course) will be enough. This books provides a lot of tools to do just that.
I’ve always been interested in practical applications of things, even if my path in life has led me away from practical pursuits towards basic science and theory (perhaps this is why I often find myself unsatisfied at my job). For this reason, up until my 22nd year of life, philosophy did not hold much appeal to me: I found there to be too much of a focus on theory and abstraction, building a self-consistent logical system for how the world worked and should work. I found these ideas to be fun to discuss or listen to podcasts about but was unwilling to engage with them on a deeper level. Self-consistent moral frameworks are all well and good, but if they’re being generated by people who I don’t consider to be particularly good at living their own lives, or even help me to live my own better, then what did I care? To me, the road to a good life seemed to be through materialism, and then in the early years of college, through Eastern insight meditation.
I still think Buddhism, and Buddhist adjacent Western practices have a lot to offer society (they are certainly much better than the blind materialist narcissism that passes for a way of life in most of society). However, around my junior year of college, through the first year of grad school, I became increasingly uncomfortable with Buddhism due to innate cultural differences that made me feel like I was an outsider and fraud, as well as a profound feeling of emptiness that filled me during some meditations sessions. I began to look elsewhere for more familiar spiritual traditions, and stumbled upon Meditations by Marcus Aurelius before my senior year when I was living in Israel. I’d like to say I found the book in a store in Jerusalem, but in all likelihood I actually probably found it on reddit.
That special book is much discussed here by Hadot (and elsewhere), and for me Meditations holds no lower of a place in my heart than it does for Hadot. In writing for his own self-improvement, and not intending his writings to be read by anyone else, Marcus’ words still manage to masterfully link stoic physics (grand overarching theory about the construction of the universe) and ethics (how to live one’s life) in short and pithy phrases and paragraphs. Meditations made me realize for the first time that philosophy could be more than theory, and actually had immense practical value, and the floodgates of my interest were opened. I’ve since read Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, Adam Smith, Ibn Khaldun and see no end in sight to my philosophical journey.
A reread of meditations in early 2021 soured me on Marcus a little bit, due to my perception of his writing, and that of the other stoics being a little too grim and nihilistic, and I did not pick an interest in stoicism back up until the summer of 2022 after me and my girlfriend of 6 months (who I had really liked) had broken up. Rather than return to Meditations, I picked up Stoicism and the Art of Happiness by Donald Robertson, which is a modern attempt to combine cognitive behavioral therapy with the ancient stoic texts of Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. Stoicism and the Art of Happiness was a solid read that I would recommend to anyone new to stoicism, but I found myself frustrated at how much Robertson quoted this French guy, Pierre Hadot. Why don’t I just read him instead?
And so, after discovering that the university library did indeed have a copy of Philosophy as a Way of Life, I did.
Philosophy as a Way of Life delivers exactly what it says it is on the tin: a discussion of philosophy as a way of life. The central thesis of this book is that only through living our ethical systems can we find spiritual and material contentment The book is divided into four parts: the first describing the methods of analysis, the second spiritual exercises, the third specific ancient philosophical figures, and the final part, themes inherent in ancient philosophy as a whole.
The first part is a discussion on how we must think of philosophy, and the context in which much of western philosophy has been done since antiquity. We think of philosophy as a dialectic, that is a conversation or series of commentaries between sources. This approach can lead to problems: such as Augustine’s obsessive textual literalism, and the focus on the discussion as an end in of itself, rather than an exercise to improve one’s abilities to practice philosophy in the real world.
This leads directly into the second part where Hadot characterizes the purpose of much of the ancient, and early Christian philosophy that has come down to us from antiquity as either a record or instruction manual of spiritual exercises. Hadot divides these exercises into four categories: Learning to live, learning to dialogue, learning to die and learning to read. Here, he discusses the transformation of perspective required to be in alignment with the universe. This transformation is created by training the attention (in a very Buddhist way), memorizing sayings, and creating habits. Conscious acts of altering your behavior, not just an attempt to understand a text. I especially enjoyed the specific sections about dialouge, which focused on the socratic dismantling of knowledge, and the section on learning to read: to not try so hard and really let the text speak to you. Hadot also has an interesting critique of Christianity here, namely that it stole a lot of its practical wisdom and exercises and tacked it on to the gospel messages. I don’t disagree with this critique, but church is pretty much the only place in society one can go to even get even these messages anymore, so it’s what I’ll have to live with.
The third section talks about two specific figures in ancient philosophy: Socrates and Marcus Aurelius. Socrates is portrayed as an almost Jesus-like figure in this section, although the traits emphasized are rather different. Socrates is an absurd character, even down to his alleged physical appearance, and doesn’t seem to take life too seriously (reminded a little of the modern internet troll). However, like Jesus, he seems to embody near perfect virtue, at least as far as a man, rather than a god, can. I also really enjoyed the discussion of Marcus Aurelius. Most of this chapter is dedicated to refuting foul rumors and misconceptions about the Roman Emperor, such that he suffered depression or was an opium addict. Hadot argues that the dour tone that some, including me, identify in Marcus’s writings is a misreading. These are spiritual exercises, intended to remind the emperor of certain things. That does not mean that is the way he normally thinks. Also, there are many passages expressing joy in the proper functioning of the universe. I have begun to read Mediations again after reading this book, and found it much more palatable.
The final section was a pretty routine discussion of stoic ethics, and the fundamental ideas of aligning your intentions and actions with that of the universe, living in the present moment, and accepting what comes. Nothing particularly new for me, but Hadot does a good job of drawing on and explaining the key stoic texts. This is present throughout the whole book, and is one thing that I really appreciate about Hedot: he cites his sources in full, so you can see what they are actually saying, rather than necessarily what he wants you to think they said.
How I will be changing my life as a result of this book
I will still be converting to catholicism this Easter, even those this book brought up some doubts about whether I need to accept a lot of the theology in order to be a good Catholic. The dogmatic theological focus of catholicism has been a large problem for me, and it’s comforting to realize that focusing on the ethics (and divine salvation of course) will be enough. This books provides a lot of tools to do just that.
dunguyen's review against another edition
3.0
Philosophy as a Way of Life by Pierre Hadot is a treatment of ancient philosophy and its use in society. Hadot explains how philosophy was considered and used in the ancient world, that is during the Greek city states and Roman Empire and how it has subsequently been changed.
Hadot gets around in Philosophy as a Way of Life. It is focusing a lot on the ancient philosophy and particularly on Stoicism and Socrates which to Hadot uses to illustrate how philosophy back then was not just a theoretical exercises but a lifelong attempt to gain wisdom. Hadot shows how ancient philosophies was very dialogue driven and how in engaging in a dialogue with a philosopher, one becomes a philosopher themselves.
The main themes of the book are spiritual exercises, the practical side of philosophy and some common themes of ancient philosophy, such as the decoupling of body and soul, training for death and cultivation of the self.
While there's plenty of interesting snippets and ideas in the book, it's also very academic and can be hard to read. It's also not so much a philosophy book in the genre of Meditations or Letters from a Stoic and instead tries to make sense of ancient philosophies. It also therefore brings a historical viewpoint to ancient philosophies.
If you are interested in the background of ancient philosophies then it's a great book, if you expect a book along the lines of Meditations or Letters from a Stoic, you'll leave slightly disappointed.
Hadot gets around in Philosophy as a Way of Life. It is focusing a lot on the ancient philosophy and particularly on Stoicism and Socrates which to Hadot uses to illustrate how philosophy back then was not just a theoretical exercises but a lifelong attempt to gain wisdom. Hadot shows how ancient philosophies was very dialogue driven and how in engaging in a dialogue with a philosopher, one becomes a philosopher themselves.
The main themes of the book are spiritual exercises, the practical side of philosophy and some common themes of ancient philosophy, such as the decoupling of body and soul, training for death and cultivation of the self.
While there's plenty of interesting snippets and ideas in the book, it's also very academic and can be hard to read. It's also not so much a philosophy book in the genre of Meditations or Letters from a Stoic and instead tries to make sense of ancient philosophies. It also therefore brings a historical viewpoint to ancient philosophies.
If you are interested in the background of ancient philosophies then it's a great book, if you expect a book along the lines of Meditations or Letters from a Stoic, you'll leave slightly disappointed.
batoolm's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
5.0
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