The affinities between Pierre Hadot’s and Michel Foucault’s interpretations of ancient philosophy, as well as their impact, are well-known. However, these interpretations have been criticized in several crucial points. This book provides the first extensive critical assessment of these interpretations. It brings together specialists in ancient philosophy, as well as Hadot and Foucault scholars, in order both to explore criticisms and clarify Hadot’s and Foucault’s accounts.
In doing so, it not only offers an overview of the main trends in Philosophy as a Way of Life, but also recasts the debate and opens new paths of inquiry in the field.
Marta Faustino, Ph.D. (2013), is an Appointed Research Fellow at the NOVA Institute of Philosophy (IFILNOVA/NOVA-FCSH). She has published several articles and chapters on Nietzsche, Hadot and Foucault and co-edited five books, including The Late Foucault: Ethical and Political Questions (Bloomsbury, 2020).
Hélder Telo, Ph.D. (2018), is an Appointed Research Fellow at Praxis: Centre for Philosophy, Politics and Culture (University of Beira Interior, Portugal). He has published articles and chapters on Plato, Aristotle, Stoicism and Heidegger, among others, and co-edited two books, including In the Mirror of the Phaedrus (Academia, 2013).
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Task of Assessing Hadot’s and Foucault’s Interpretations of Ancient Philosophy
Marta Faustino and Hélder Telo
PART 1: General Accounts
1 To What Extent Can Greek Philosophy Be Characterized as an “Art of Living”?
Christoph Horn
2 Ancient Philosophy as a Way of Life Examined: Clearing up the Confusion between “Way of Life” and “Art of Life”
Annie Larivée
3 The Problem of the Dandy in the Aesthetics of Existence: Foucault’s Dialogue with Hadot, Kant, and Baudelaire
Paul Allen Miller
PART 2: Spirituality
4 Philosophical Mythoi: the Birth of Spirituality from the Nature of Things
Gianfranco Ferraro
5 A Contamination of Philosophy by Religion? Reassessing Hadot’s Notion of Spiritual Exercises
Marta Faustino
6 Pierre Hadot and His Critics on Spiritual Exercises and Cosmic Consciousness: from Ancient Philosophy to Contemporary Neurology
Michael Chase
7 Ancient Stoicism: between Spiritual Exercises and Cognitive Therapy
Konrad Banicki
8 Towards a Comparative Archaeology of the Notion of “Spiritual”: Michel Foucault and “Ancient Philosophy” as “Spirituality”
Pierre Vesperini
PART 3: Logos and Truth
9 On the Role of Reason in Ancient Philosophical Practice: an Intellectualist Reframing of Hadot’s and Foucault’s Approach
Hélder Telo
10 Foucault on Parrhēsia and Rhetoric: a Reassessment
Daniele Lorenzini
11 From Speech to Pure Visibility: a Problem in Foucault’s Conception of Socratic Parrhesia
Paulo Alexandre Lima
12 Between Care of the Other and Truth-Telling: the Place of Epicureanism in the Interrupted Dialogue between Michel Foucault and Pierre Hadot
Federico Testa
PART 4: Hermeneutical Questions
13 Physics, Periodization & Platonism: Inflecting the Foucault-Hadot Dialogue in Light of L’Herméneutique du sujet Matthew Sharpe
14 Foucault, Reader of Plato: the Problem of ἐπιμέλεια τοῦ βίου
Fábio Serranito
15 Aristotle and Philosophy as a Way of Life
John Sellars
16 Creative Error Genealogy: toward a Method in the History of Philosophy
Eli Kramer and Gary Herstein
Index
Academic libraries in general, as well as institutes, scholars, teachers and students working on Hadot, Foucault, ancient philosophy, philosophy as a way of life, and classical studies in general.