This book presents a history of spiritual exercises from Socrates to early Christianity, an account of their decline in modern philosophy, and a discussion of the different conceptions of philosophy that have accompanied the trajectory and fate of the theory and practice of spiritual exercises. Hadot's book demonstrates the extent to which philosophy has been, and still is, above all else a way of seeing and of being in the world.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Hadot's essays exhibit impressive scholarship and a habit of profound reflection. This is not a book for the casual reader but it is an important publication and should be a required text for every student of philosophy, classics and the history of ideas, and for any serious teacher of these subjects." The Tablet
"Hadot's work is very engaging, knowledgeable, well written and insightful. I highly recommend this book for both general and professional readers." Richard S. Findler, Phil dept, Slippery Rock University for the History of European Ideas
"Recommended for upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty." H. L. Shapiro, University of Missouri for Choice
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Original Language: French --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
44 of 47 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This collection of Hadot's essays is readable and useful. Michael Chase's translation of Hadot's French is clear and elegant and completely unobtrusive. The introduction by Arnold I. Davidson--while longer than some of the essays in the book--is indespensible. Hadot provides a key to reading some ancient authors, and this key enables us to see their writings as a form of philosophical practice, as spirital exercises. Hadot offers practical advice on how to read the Stoics, for example. Try reading the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius after Hadot and be the richer for it. Hadot also illuminates and critiques some modern thinkers as well.
The book has an index, a good bibliography, and each essay includes numerous notes. There is also an interesting interview [by Michael Chase, the translator] with Hadot in the postscript.
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I am not sure this is the best introduction to Hadot's approach to philosophy. "What is Ancient Philosophy?" is more of one piece. Which makes sense because what we have in this book is a collection of articles, addresses and an interview that have been loosely woven together.
But this volume has some particular strengths. Arnold Davidson's introduction is brilliant. He manages to introduces the main themes of investigation throughout Hadot's life (Hadot passed away just a few months ago). Davidson also makes it clear that Hadot's insights into ancient philosophy are based on his work as a translator of works from that period.
Another strength is that many of the articles collected here show off the extraordinary cultural learning of Hadot. I remarked in my review of "What is Ancient Philosophy?" that reading Hadot is to be introduced to the work of generations of French and German scholars of whom most Americans know nothing (would someone please translate Groethuyson's "Anthropologie philosophique" for me? Please?)
But in this book, Hadot also demonstrates his remarkable grasp of such diverse thinkers as Nietzsche, Montaigne, Goethe, Wittgenstein, Merleau-Ponty and Foucault. I always walk away from reading Hadot feeling as if I am both the Nitwit of Western Culture and exhilarated by some of the connections that he has made.
Hadot is particularly famous in France for his work as a translator/commentator of Plotinus and Marcus Aurelius. Early textual work on those two and other philosophers led Hadot to the realization that many of the works of the Hellenistic period were being misunderstood because today's interpreters were not seeing these works for what they were. Today's philosophers, for the most part, write dissertations that try to lay out exactly what the author wants to say. The work is usually directed toward a professional audience or, at least, toward expert amateurs. The intent is to inform and convince.
Hadot's central insight into Hellenistic philosophy is that, for most of the writings that we have
extant, the intent is to (re)form, not to inform. In other words, this is philosophy that is meant to change the way we live. More deeply, it is meant to change the way we see the world, the way we feel about our lives and the way we treat each other.
As such, the types of writings that we have from this period have to be understood for the literary types that they are; exhortations to oneself to remember the main dicta that one has learned or rhetorical works designed to convince the uninitiated to follow the path of a particular philosophical school, etc. What is so immediately convincing about this point is that it makes sense of all the repetitions, contradictions and eclecticism which is so evident in the writings of some of the ancients. The first article in this collection explores how the failure of recent interpreters to understand this aspect of ancient philosophical literature has led to many misinterpretations (although Hadot is careful to point out that some of the misreadings have been very fruitful).
The Second Part of this book may be the best. This contains Hadot's classic article on "Spiritual Exercises". In this article, Hadot first outlined his realization that many of the writings of the Hellenistic philosophers were really meant to be read as exercises that would help instill in the philosopher the teachings of that particular school. I have become convinced from my own readings that he is absolutely right about the necessity of this approach. If you want to understand your reading of Seneca, of Marcus Aurelius, of Cicero, Epictetus and even of the earlier Greeks (like, you know- that Plato guy), you simply have to read this article.
Hadot discusses one other idea in these articles that must be mentioned and that is his idea of the topos or topics of Western culture/philosophy. These are "formulae, images, and metaphors"(p.66) that have, over time, proved indispensable to many thinkers within a tradition or our culture. Hadot spent the last part of his life tracing the cultural history of some of these topics. His last book, "The Veil of Isis", is one such investigation. Several of the later articles in this collection are others. "The View from Above" is one of them and briefly traces some of the history of the exercise of learning to look down at humanity from a cosmic viewpoint.
I would also like to recommend the short article "The Sage and the World" wherein Hadot defends the relevance of the lessons he has learned from ancient philosophy to our own lived-in world.
It's funny. There are many similarities (as well as enormous differences) between Hadot and Leo Strauss. I think they would have found much to talk about with each other. One of the things they both emphasized was the idea of the difference between the sage and the philosopher. The sage was seen in Hellenistic times as the fully realized wise man. Let us just say there are few of those. The philosopher, on the other hand, was she who chased after wisdom as something loved. I like this idea. Among other things, it brings out the theme of the erotic which is so present in ancient philosophy. Well, my friends, Pierre Hadot was a philosopher. In his books, he not only chases after wisdom, he entices us to do so as well. In doing so, he makes this reader, at least, examine my own way of being in the world. For me, reading Hadot had been to hold up a mirror to my own life and to realize the need for a spiritual exercise program. I gots some work to do.
But this volume has some particular strengths. Arnold Davidson's introduction is brilliant. He manages to introduces the main themes of investigation throughout Hadot's life (Hadot passed away just a few months ago). Davidson also makes it clear that Hadot's insights into ancient philosophy are based on his work as a translator of works from that period.
Another strength is that many of the articles collected here show off the extraordinary cultural learning of Hadot. I remarked in my review of "What is Ancient Philosophy?" that reading Hadot is to be introduced to the work of generations of French and German scholars of whom most Americans know nothing (would someone please translate Groethuyson's "Anthropologie philosophique" for me? Please?)
But in this book, Hadot also demonstrates his remarkable grasp of such diverse thinkers as Nietzsche, Montaigne, Goethe, Wittgenstein, Merleau-Ponty and Foucault. I always walk away from reading Hadot feeling as if I am both the Nitwit of Western Culture and exhilarated by some of the connections that he has made.
Hadot is particularly famous in France for his work as a translator/commentator of Plotinus and Marcus Aurelius. Early textual work on those two and other philosophers led Hadot to the realization that many of the works of the Hellenistic period were being misunderstood because today's interpreters were not seeing these works for what they were. Today's philosophers, for the most part, write dissertations that try to lay out exactly what the author wants to say. The work is usually directed toward a professional audience or, at least, toward expert amateurs. The intent is to inform and convince.
Hadot's central insight into Hellenistic philosophy is that, for most of the writings that we have
extant, the intent is to (re)form, not to inform. In other words, this is philosophy that is meant to change the way we live. More deeply, it is meant to change the way we see the world, the way we feel about our lives and the way we treat each other.
As such, the types of writings that we have from this period have to be understood for the literary types that they are; exhortations to oneself to remember the main dicta that one has learned or rhetorical works designed to convince the uninitiated to follow the path of a particular philosophical school, etc. What is so immediately convincing about this point is that it makes sense of all the repetitions, contradictions and eclecticism which is so evident in the writings of some of the ancients. The first article in this collection explores how the failure of recent interpreters to understand this aspect of ancient philosophical literature has led to many misinterpretations (although Hadot is careful to point out that some of the misreadings have been very fruitful).
The Second Part of this book may be the best. This contains Hadot's classic article on "Spiritual Exercises". In this article, Hadot first outlined his realization that many of the writings of the Hellenistic philosophers were really meant to be read as exercises that would help instill in the philosopher the teachings of that particular school. I have become convinced from my own readings that he is absolutely right about the necessity of this approach. If you want to understand your reading of Seneca, of Marcus Aurelius, of Cicero, Epictetus and even of the earlier Greeks (like, you know- that Plato guy), you simply have to read this article.
Hadot discusses one other idea in these articles that must be mentioned and that is his idea of the topos or topics of Western culture/philosophy. These are "formulae, images, and metaphors"(p.66) that have, over time, proved indispensable to many thinkers within a tradition or our culture. Hadot spent the last part of his life tracing the cultural history of some of these topics. His last book, "The Veil of Isis", is one such investigation. Several of the later articles in this collection are others. "The View from Above" is one of them and briefly traces some of the history of the exercise of learning to look down at humanity from a cosmic viewpoint.
I would also like to recommend the short article "The Sage and the World" wherein Hadot defends the relevance of the lessons he has learned from ancient philosophy to our own lived-in world.
It's funny. There are many similarities (as well as enormous differences) between Hadot and Leo Strauss. I think they would have found much to talk about with each other. One of the things they both emphasized was the idea of the difference between the sage and the philosopher. The sage was seen in Hellenistic times as the fully realized wise man. Let us just say there are few of those. The philosopher, on the other hand, was she who chased after wisdom as something loved. I like this idea. Among other things, it brings out the theme of the erotic which is so present in ancient philosophy. Well, my friends, Pierre Hadot was a philosopher. In his books, he not only chases after wisdom, he entices us to do so as well. In doing so, he makes this reader, at least, examine my own way of being in the world. For me, reading Hadot had been to hold up a mirror to my own life and to realize the need for a spiritual exercise program. I gots some work to do.
45 of 49 people found the following review helpful
By John Piazza
Format:Paperback
All students of philosophy should get this book. It rekindles that spark which is the core of all philosophical investigation, and which, unfortunately, is too often stomped out by academia. Hadot takes us back to a time when philosophy, religion and spirituality were not separate, but one, and he shows us that philosophy can continue to provide its students with meaning.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Philosophy as a way of life
Recontextualizes the role of imagination and reason in ancient philosphy as spiritual excercies, thus restoring the diagnostic and theraputic role that ancient philosophy had.
Published 2 months ago by Mark Trumble
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hadot offers extraordinary depth of insight on a wide range of topics.
I have read several of Hadot's works, starting with his "The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius", and feel blessed and very fortunate to have found his... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Michael B. Cahill
5.0 out of 5 stars
Review of Chase's Hadot
This collection of essays by Hadot has been here rendered into readable English and accompanied with a great introduction by Arnold Davidson. Read more
Published on March 14, 2011 by Ryan S. Mease
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read Hadot before reading the Stoics/Epicureans directly
This book is outstanding. This is exactly why there are professional scholars. I've read Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius many times, but can't say I've understood them as well as... Read more
Published on December 5, 2010 by rodrigo
5.0 out of 5 stars
Philosophy as a way of life
Noted intellectual Pierre Hadot offers many thought provoking dialogues in this book. His reference for example on holiness was and is perfect. Read more
Published on October 16, 2010 by Peter Steven
5.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, different, and worthwhile
This is a very interesting and good book. Because his work has generally not been translated, we do not know Hadot. Read more
Published on May 6, 2010 by Eric J. Cassell
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thought Provoking, Well Researched
This is one of the best books that I have read in quite some time. Focused mostly on the Hellenistic era but also going as far back as Socrates and as far forward as Nietzsche and... Read more
Published on October 10, 2009 by John Trapp
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rescuing philosophy
This book is a great achievement. Hadot, a recognized scholar of classical philosophy, shows us what the classical philosophers were really after. Read more
Published on September 18, 2002
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rescuing philosophy
This book is a great achievement. Hadot, a recognized scholar of classical philosophy, shows us what the classical philosophers were really after. Read more
Published on September 18, 2002
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not Philosophy
Although Hadot does know his stuff, me mostly talks about other people's view on philosophy. I found this book to be quite a tease. Read more
Published on June 21, 2001 by "audi8080"
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 99
books:
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71
books
cite this book:
See all 71 books citing this book
- On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura) (Philosophical Classics) by Titus Lucretius Carus on 12 pages
- Tusculan disputations (Classical texts) by Marcus Tullius Cicero on 7 pages
- The Birth of Tragedy (Dover Thrift Editions) by Friedrich Nietzsche on 6 pages
- On Benefits by Lucius Annaeus Seneca on 5 pages
- On Benefits by L. Annaeus Seneca on 5 pages
See all 99 books this book cites
- Emotional Experience and Religious Understanding: Integrating Perception, Conception and Feeling by Mark Wynn on page 135, and Back Matter
- The Golden Chain: An Anthology of Pythagorean and Platonic Philosophy (Treasures of the World's Religions) by Algis Uzdavinys in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Reading Renunciation by Elizabeth A. Clark on page 17, and Back Matter
- The Philosopher in Early Modern Europe: The Nature of a Contested Identity (Ideas in Context) by Conal Condren on page 20, and page 203
- The Scope of Our Art: The Vocation of the Theological Teacher by Mr. Gregory L. Jones on page 15, and page 64
See all 71 books citing this book
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