Spiritual Exercises and Ancient Philosophy: An Introduction to Pierre Hadot

1990 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnold I. Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Philosophy ◽  
Spiritual Exercises ◽  
Pierre Hadot

scholarly journals The metamorphosis of the soul. an attempt to read ancient philosophy as a praxis of life – Pierre Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault.

KÜLÖNBSÉG ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emese Faragó
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Philosophy ◽  
Spiritual Exercises ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Pierre Hadot

The metamorphosis of the soul. An attempt to read ancient philosophy as a praxis of life – Pierre Hadot: Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault. (Review) Hadot, Pierre: Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault. Trans. Ákos Cseke. Budapest, Kairosz, 2010.

scholarly journals UM ESBOÇO DE UMA PERSONALIDADE MÍSTICA - DOI 10.5752/P.1983-2478.2014v10n17p13

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (17) ◽  
pp. 13-24
Author(s):  
Luiz Felipe Pondé
Keyword(s):  
Ralph Waldo Emerson ◽  
Ancient Philosophy ◽  
Spiritual Exercises ◽  
Short History ◽  
Self Reliance ◽  
History Of ◽  
Pierre Hadot ◽  
Do So

ResumoA intenção deste artigo é fazer um esboço do que seria uma personalidade mística portadora de uma ciência mística. Para tal, levantamos alguns instrumentos conceituais para este fim. Percorremos um breve histórico semântico da palavra “mística” no cristianismo. Em seguida, identificamos o que seria o elemento místico nas religiões, segundo o pesquisador Friedrich Von Hügel. Na sequência, analisamos os conceitos de exercícios espirituais do filósofo Pierre Hadot na filosofia antiga e de transcendentalismo (autoconfiança) no romantismo americano de Ralph Waldo Emerson, a fim de neles iluminar o que seria uma filosofia mística. Como último instrumento, vimos o conceito de aristocracia espiritual do filósofo russo Nicolai Berdiaev. Os principais traços dessa personalidade identificados são: ausência do problema de sentido da existência, enfrentamento da contingência, amor espontâneo pela vida, vontade autoconfiante, coragem, generosidade e atenção a presença da dimensão transcendente.Palavras-Chave: Mística. Cristianismo. Exercícios espirituais. Transcendentalismo. AbstractThis article intends to a make a sketch of what would be a mystical personality and its mystical science. In order to do so, we have identified some conceptual tools. First, we have followed a short history of the semantics of the word “mysticism” in Christianity. From there, we have moved onto Friedrich Von Hügel’s concept of mystical element, Pierre Hadot’s spiritual exercises in ancient philosophy, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s transcendentalism (self reliance), and, last, but not least, Nicolai Berdiaev’s concept of spiritual aristocracy. The main traits of the mystical personality we have identified are: lack of fear concerning the problem of meaning life, facing of contingence, spontaneuos love for life, self reliance, courage, generosity and atention to the transcendent dimension.Key words: Mysticism. Christianity. Spiritual exercises.Transcendentalism.

Questioning the Presence of the Past

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-91
Author(s):  
Thomas Kriza
Keyword(s):  
Michel Foucault ◽  
World View ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Spiritual Exercises ◽  
Existential Meaning ◽  
The Past ◽  
Truth Claim ◽  
Scientific World ◽  
Pierre Hadot

Abstract This paper questions the contemporary turn towards horizons of existential meaning going back to antiquity especially in the shape of a turn to religion by pointing to crucial differences between antique conceptions of thought and their modern revivals. Pierre Hadot and Michel Foucault interpret antique thought as spiritual exercises to perfect human existence, exposing an inherent existential relevance and connection to a peculiar conception of truth. I argue that because of these ties to a truth claim deeply alien to the modern scientific world-view, antique horizons of existential meaning cannot be revived within modern frames of thought. Their contemporary presence is more likely the expression of the deeply ambivalent modern relationship to premodern horizons of existential meaning, rather than a genuine revival.

Pierre Hadot as a Reader of Wittgenstein

Paragraph ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 322-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Laugier
Keyword(s):  
Ralph Waldo Emerson ◽  
Henry David Thoreau ◽  
Ancient Philosophy ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
Ethical Reflection ◽  
Spiritual Exercise ◽  
Stanley Cavell ◽  
Collège De France ◽  
Pierre Hadot ◽  
Point Of Departure

Pierre Hadot (1922–2010), professor of ancient philosophy at the Collège de France, published, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, some of the earliest work on Wittgenstein to appear in French. Hadot conceived of philosophy as an activity rather than a body of doctrines and found in Wittgenstein a fruitful point of departure for ethical reflection. Hadot's understanding of philosophy as a spiritual exercise — articulated through his reading of ancient philosophy but also the American transcendentalists Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson — will find an echo in Wittgenstinian thinkers such as Stanley Cavell and Cora Diamond. Ultimately philosophy for Hadot is a call to personal and political transformation.

VIRTUE AND PHILOSOPHY IN 4 MACCABEES

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 307-325
Author(s):  
Paul B Decock
Keyword(s):  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Spiritual Exercises ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Philosophical Work ◽  
Fourth Section ◽  
The Third ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Pierre Hadot ◽  
Practical Question ◽  
Jewish Religion

The first section of this article focuses on the use of the term and theme of ἀρετή in the argument that the Jewish religion can be seen as a most worthy philosophy. The second section shows how 4 Maccabees can be seen as a Jewish version of a philosophical work in the ancient Greco-Roman tradition: it raises the practical question of the noble way of life and shows us inspiring examples of persons who embodied this way by the manner in which they faced their death. The third section explores how a reading of 4 Maccabees can be seen as one of the “spiritual exercises” in the philosophical tradition (Pierre Hadot). The fourth section touches briefly on the issue of the Hellenization of the Jewish religion, of which 4 Maccabees is a strong example.

Barthes and the Lessons of Ancient Philosophy

2020 ◽  
pp. 137-153
Author(s):  
Lucy O’Meara
Keyword(s):  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Ancient Philosophy ◽  
Literary Canon ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Art Of Living ◽  
Late Work ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Collège De France ◽  
Pierre Hadot ◽  
Moral Perfectionism

Roland Barthes was a classicist by training; his work frequently alludes to the classical literary canon and the ancient art of rhetoric. This chapter argues that ancient Greco-Roman philosophy permits insights into Barthes’s very late work, particularly when we understand ancient philosophy not as an academic discipline, but as a mode of thought which prioritises an art of living. This chapter will focus on Barthes’s posthumously published Collège de France lecture notes (1977–80) and on other posthumous diary material, arguing that this work can be seen as part of a tradition of thought which has its roots in the ethics and care of the self proposed by ancient Greco-Roman philosophical thought. The chapter uses the work of the historian of ancient philosophy, Pierre Hadot, to set Barthes’s teaching in dialogue with Stoic and Epicurean thought, and subsequently refers to Stanley Cavell’s work on ‘moral perfectionism’ to demonstrate how Barthes’s final lecture courses, and the associated Vita Nova project, can be seen as efforts by Barthes to transform his ‘intelligibility’. Barthes’s late moral perfectionism, and the individualism of his teaching, corresponds to the ancient philosophical ethical imperative to think one’s way of life differently and thereby to transform one’s self.

The Spiritual Exercises of John Rawls

2021 ◽  
pp. 009059172110417
Author(s):  
Alexandre Lefebvre
Keyword(s):  
John Rawls ◽  
The Self ◽  
Original Position ◽  
Spiritual Exercises ◽  
Standard Interpretation ◽  
Spiritual Exercise ◽  
Principles Of Justice ◽  
Pierre Hadot

In this article I interpret John Rawls’s concept of the original position as a spiritual exercise. In addition to the standard interpretation of the original position as an expository device to select principles of justice for the fundamental institutions of society, I argue that Rawls also envisages it as a “spiritual exercise”: a voluntary personal practice intended to bring about a transformation of the self. To make this argument, I draw on the work of Pierre Hadot, a philosopher and classicist, who introduced the idea of spiritual exercises as central to ancient and modern conceptions of philosophy. By reading Rawls alongside Hadot, this article portrays Rawls as a thinker deeply concerned with the question of how subjects can lead more just and fulfilling lives. It also proposes that the original position as a spiritual exercise can help defend liberalism as a social and political doctrine.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document