Philosophy as a Way of Life

Michael Chase is a Researcher at the Jean Pépin Centre of the National Centre of Scientific Research, Paris. A former student of Pierre Hadot himself, he has completed numerous translations of Hadot’s works, and has also published on Late Greek and Latin Neoplatonism, Patristics, and Islamic and Medieval thought.Stephen R. L. Clark is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Liverpool, UK. His books include Aristotle’s Man (1975), From Athens to Jerusalem (1984), Civil Peace and Sacred Order (1989), Biology and Christian Ethics (2000), Understanding Faith (2009), and Ancient Mediterranean Philosophy (2013). Michael McGhee is Honorary Senior Fellow at the Department of Philosophy, University of Liverpool. He is the author of Transformations of Mind: Philosophy as Spiritual Practice (2000), as well as of a number of articles on moral philosophy, aesthetics, and the philosophy of religion.

• Notes on Contributors viiForeword by John H. Spencer xiii1 Introduction 1Michael Chase2 Ancient Philosophers: A First Statistical Survey 10Richard Goulet(Color plate section is between page 32 and 33)3 Philosophy as a Way of Life: As Textual and More Than Textual Practice 40Richard Shusterman4 Charismatic Authority, Spiritual Guidance, and Way of Life in the Pythagorean Tradition 57Constantinos Macris5 Alcibiades’ Love 84Jan Zwicky6 Stoics and Bodhisattvas: Spiritual Exercise and Faith in Two Philosophical Traditions 99Matthew T. Kapstein7 Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from the Buddha to Tagore 116Jonardon Ganeri8 Approaching Islamic Philosophical Texts: Reading Mulla¯ Sadra¯ Sırazı (d. 1635) with Pierre Hadot 132Sajjad H. Rizvi9 Philosophy and Self-improvement: Continuity and Change in Philosophy’s Self-conception from the Classical to the Early-modern Era 148John Cottingham10 Descartes’ Meditations: Practical Metaphysics: The Father of Rationalism in the Tradition of Spiritual Exercises 167Theodor Kobusch11 Leading a Philosophical Life in Dark Times: The Case of Leonard Nelson and His Followers 184Fernando Leal12 Philosophy as a Way of Life and Anti-philosophy 210Gwenaelle Aubry ¨13 Philosophy and Gestalt Psychotherapy 223Paul O’Grady14 Wittgenstein’s Temple: Or How Cool is Philosophy? 241Michael McGhee15 Observations on Pierre Hadot’s Conception of Philosophy as a Way of Life 262Michael ChaseBibliography 287Index 311