2011
11. 14
Ways of Life | 01 ...a profound difference exists between the representations which the ancients made of philosophia and the representation which is usually made of philosophy today -- at least in the case of the image of it which is presented to students, because of the exigencies of university teaching. They get the impression that all the philosophers they study strove in turn to invent, each in an original way, a new construction, systematic and abstract, intended somehow or other to explain the universe, or at least, if we are talking about contemporary philosophers, that they tried to elaborate a new discourse about language. These philosophies--which one could call "general philosophy"--give rise, in almost all systems, to doctrines or criticisms of morality which, as it were, draw the consequences, both for individuals and for society, of the general principles of the system, and thus invite people to carry out a specific choice of life and adopt a certain mode of behavior. The problem of knowing whether this choice of life will be efficacious is utterly secondary and accessory; it doesn't enter into the perspective of philosophical discourse.
I think that such a representation is a mistake if it is applied to the philosophy of antiquity. Obviously, there can be no question of denying the extraordinary ability of the ancient philosophers to develop theoretical reflection on the most subtle problems of the theory of knowledge, logic, or physics. This theoretical activity, however, must be situated within a perspective which is different from that which corresponds to the idea people usually have of philosophy... at least since the time of Socrates , the choice of a way of life has not been located at the end of the process of philosophical activity, like a kind of accessory or appendix. On the contrary it stands at the beginning, in a complex interrelation with critical reaction to other existential attitudes, with a global vision of a certain way of living and of seeing the world, and with voluntary decision itself... Consequently, philosophy is above all a way of life, but one which is intimately linked to philosophical discourse. (P. Hadot, What is Ancient Philosophy?)