Abstract: This article compares two different ways of construing philosophy as a way of life (PWL), examining how they influence our understanding of the philosophical tradition and of philosophy today. First, I demonstrate that scholars (including Hadot himself at many points) tend to view PWL as involving a set of philosophical “dogmas” (i.e., doctrines, arguments, or discourse) that…
Abstract: The distinction between theory and practice, as well as their specific role, function, and relevance within philosophy is at the core of most metaphilosophical discussions of philosophy as a way of life (PWL). At the same time, Hadot’s emphasis on the practical dimension of ancient philosophy and its alleged privilege of practice over theory is one…
Abstract: In my paper, I attempt to show how the Hadotian metaphilosophical perspective of philosophy as a way of life (PWL for short) implies another conception of what true, philosophical knowledge is: a conception that one should understand through Hadot’s reading of what is Sophia for ancient philosophy. To do so, I present my account of PWL according to Hadot as a way of…
Abstract: Despite his inclusion in Hadot’s foundational work on philosophy as a way of life (PWL), Aristotle tends to be sidelined in recent discussions. This is because Aristotelian contemplation is a goal in itself, not clearly associated with a project of transformation of the knower’s practical life. In this article, I use evidence from the Eudemian Ethics (EE) to re-evaluate the relationship between…
Abstract: Starting from the premise, recently shared by authors such as Jacques Derrida and Pierre Macherey (for whom a state of crisis is inherent to the university) that of the humanities constitute the specific terrain in which to propose new experiments, this article attempts to verify what is at stake in an approach to philosophy as a way of life, in the context…
Abstract: This paper forms as it were a draft for an as-yet-unwritten, decisive chapter on the history of philosophy as a way of life (PWL). It closely examines the texts by Schleiermacher, Fichte, Humboldt, and Schelling on the foundation of the modern research university, and the place of philosophy within it, written in the years surrounding the formation…
Abstract: The reception of Hadot’s work on the tradition of spiritual exercises among historians of medieval philosophy has rarely produced the results one might reasonably have expected. In this revisitation of the historiography on the notion of “intellectual felicity,” I thus hope to be able first to provide a corrective to the faulty understanding that some medievalists still seem…
Abstract: The New Atheist movement has been called “fundamentalist” in its allegiance to science. While true that New Atheism is remarkable among the various historical formations of atheism for its championing of the sciences, it is not fundamentalist. Where it does share a resemblance to Christian fundamentalism is in their respective attachments to a salvific epistemology either…
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to show how a monastic environment can be regarded as providing shelter for individuals with autism spectrum condition in the Middle Ages. By drawing on the recent literature in the history of medicine that traces the signs and symptoms of ASC in Hildegard of Bingen, a Benedictine abbess from the twelfth century, we will…
Abstract: There is a good chance that “each critic becomes a Pygmalion” (as Leo Curran put it) when they bring the work of art to life in their narcissistic (and almost amorous) attention, unfolding its meaning so that they should be able to write their own interpretation. The starting point of the present text is the perfection…