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.

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.

Philosophie als performative Lebensform – als textuelle Praxis und mehr als textuelle Praxis

2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Shusterman
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Philosophy ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Art Of Living ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
Philosophical Task ◽  
Linguistic Means

AbstractAlthough typically identified with discursive practices of writing and oral dialog that have long dominated its practice, philosophy has also asserted itself as something other and more than words; it claimed to be an entire way of life, an art of living dedicated to the pursuit of wisdom (as the word “philosophia” implies). After showing how discursive and non-discursive dimensions of ancient philosophy were designed to complement each other, this paper explains the reasons why even the basic philosophical task of self-knowledge requires discursive communicative tools. It then explores to what extent and in what ways philosophy can be practiced through non-linguistic means, by considering both Western and Asian sources.

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.

Philosophy and Philosophical Sages in the Graeco-Roman World

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Runar M. Thorsteinsson
Keyword(s):  
Second Century ◽  
Virtue Theory ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Art Of Living ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Pierre Hadot

This chapter addresses the question of the ways in which the ancients discussed and viewed philosophy as a discipline. Basing its main argument on the work of Pierre Hadot, the study argues that ancient philosophers understood philosophy primarily as the ‘art of living’, a way of life, which, in turn, points to the importance of classical virtue theory in this respect. The chapter also examines the question of how Graeco-Roman philosophers described the character of the philosophical sage, focusing on such descriptions in the first and second century, using the writings of Seneca as an example. Descriptions of the philosophical sage are most prominent in Stoic sources.

Drafted into a Foreign War?

Rhizomata ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-217
Author(s):  
Matthew Sharpe
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Philosophy ◽  
The Self ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Technologies Of The Self ◽  
Analytic Tradition ◽  
Modern Conception ◽  
The Past ◽  
Rational Inquiry

Abstract This paper examines the central criticisms that come, broadly, from the modern, ‘analytic’ tradition, of Pierre Hadot’s idea of ancient philosophy as a way of life.: Firstly, ancient philosophy just did not or could not have involved anything like the ‘spiritual practices’ or ‘technologies of the self’, aiming at curing subjects’ unnecessary desires or bettering their lives, contra Hadot and Foucault et al. Secondly, any such metaphilosophical account of putative ‘philosophy’ must unacceptably downplay the role of ‘serious philosophical reasoning’ or ‘rigorous argument’ in philosophy. Thirdly, claims that ancient philosophy aimed at securing wisdom by a variety of means including but not restricted to rational inquiry are accordingly false also as historical claims about the ancient philosophers. Fourthly, to the extent that we must (despite (3)) admit that some ancient thinkers did engage in or recommend extra-cognitive forms of transformative practice, these thinkers were not true or ‘mainline’ philosophers. I contend that the historical claims (3) and (4) are highly contestable, risking erroneously projecting a later modern conception of philosophy back onto the past. Of the theoretical or metaphilosophical claims (1) and (2), I argue that the second claim, as framed here, points to real, hard questions that surround the conception(s) of philosophy as a way of life.

A Classical Ethical Problem in Ancient Philosophy and Rabbinic Thought: The Case of the Shipwrecked

2013 ◽  
Vol 106 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katell Berthelot
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Ethical Problem ◽  
Ancient Philosophy ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Babylonian Talmud ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Jewish Ethics ◽  
Philosophical Texts

The story found in Sifra Behar 5.3 and in the Babylonian Talmud, Baba Meṣi'a 62a, about two persons traveling in a desert and having a quantity of water that allows only one of them to reach civilization and survive, is well known and frequently referred to in books and articles dealing with Jewish ethics. The rabbinic texts raise the question: Should the travelers share the water and die together, or should the person who owns the water drink it in order to survive? This story reminds one of the case of the two shipwrecked men who grasp a plank that can bear the weight of only one person and therefore enables only one of them to reach the coast, a case referred to in philosophical texts from the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The similarities between the issues dealt with in the rabbinic texts and the Greco-Roman ones have indeed been noticed by several scholars working on rabbinic literature (whereas specialists of ancient philosophy generally ignore them). However, a systematic comparative analysis of the rabbinic tradition and the philosophical texts has not been undertaken so far, nor have previous studies paid much attention to the issues at stake within the Greco-Roman texts themselves, to their inner logic and relationships with one another.

Nietzsche und die Philosophie der Lebenskunst

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 442-457
Author(s):  
Johannes Heinrich
Keyword(s):  
Soren Kierkegaard ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Self Care ◽  
Ancient Philosophy ◽  
Art Of Living ◽  
Close Proximity

Abstract Nietzsche and the philosophy of the art of living. The books under review trace the network of relationships between Nietzsche and the ancient philosophy of the art of living. Further, Nietzsche’s idea of the art and style of living is placed in the context of existentialism and, above all, in close proximity to the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard. It becomes clear that Nietzsche’s concept of the art of living cannot be reduced to the philosophical and historical context of classical concepts of self-care; rather, Nietzsche’s views have to be situated in the context of modern and current philosophical theories. In addition, questions such as the alleged naturalism in Nietzsche’s work, as well as the possible continuity between his early and late writings, are strongly related to the analysis of a Nietzschean art of living.

Shaping History in the 1st and 2nd Centuries CE in Its Literary Culture

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eve-Marie Becker
Keyword(s):  
Literary Culture ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Substantial Contribution ◽  
Literary Canon ◽  
History Writing ◽  
Western History ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Literary Phenomenon

This chapter studies the interrelation of history-writing and literary culture. It considers the function of history-writing within the context of Hellenistic literary culture, as historiography at the time can be seen as a literary phenomenon. History-writing represents a substantial contribution to ancient literature; it circulates within the sphere of the ancient literary canon. Chronologically speaking, Mark and Luke follow in the literary tradition set by the earliest in Western history-writing, yet literary tradition among the earliest Christian authors also differs from the Greco-Roman world. Where historiographical topics and concepts vary significantly from one author to the next, in Mark and Luke, the subject of the narrative, namely, the gospel, remains surprisingly constant.

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