Philosophy as a Way of Life
Philosophy as a Way of Life
Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault
Pierre Hadot
Edited with an introduction by
Arnold I. Davidson
Translated by
Michael Chase
BLACl<WELL
Od•tJ UIC I\ f•"'�''"'' USA
Copyright 0 Pierre Hadot, 1995
English translation C Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 1995
The right of Pierre Hadot to be Identified as author of this work has been asserted In accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Parts of this work first published as Exerclcu 1plrltuel1 et philo1ophle antique by Etudes Augustiniennes, Paris 1987 (2nd edition) English edition first published 1995
Reprinted 1996 (twice), 1997, 1998, 1999
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All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes or criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a rcb'ieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission or the publisher.
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise; be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that In which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being Imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Brltlah Library Cataloguing In Publication Data A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congru1 Cataloging In Publication Data
Hadot, Pierre.
[Exercices spirituels et philosophic antique. English]
Philosophy as a way of life: spiritual exercises from Socrates to Foucault/Pierre Hadot; edited by Arnold Davidson; translated by Michael Chase.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-631-18032-X (alk. paper) - ISBN 0-631-18033-8 O>bk.:alk. paper) 1. Philosophy. 2. Spiritual exercises - History. I. Davidson, Arnold Ira.
II. Title
Bl05.S66H3313
1995
100-dc20
94-28788
CIP
Typeset in 10.5 on 12 pt Ehrhardt
by Pure Tech Corporation, Pondicherry, India
Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall This book is printed on acid-free paper
Contents
Translator's Nott
v1
list of Abbreviations
ix
Introduction: Pie"e Hadol and the Spiritual Phenomenon of Ancient Philosophy Arnold I. Davidson
Part I Method
47
l Forms of Life and Forms of Discourse in Ancient Philosophy 49
2 Philosophy, Exegesis, and Creative Mistakes
7 1
Part II Spiritual Exercises
79
3 Spiritual Exercises
8 1
4 Ancient Spiritual Exercises and "Christian Philosophy"
1 26
Part Ill Figures
145
5 The Figure of Socrates
147
6 Marcus Aurelius
179
7 Reflections on the Idea of the "Cultivation of the Selr'
206
Part IV Themes
215
8 "Only the Present is our Happiness": The Value of the Present Instant in Goethe and in Ancient Philosophy
2 1 7
9 The View from Above
238
10 The Sage and the World
25 1
11 Philosophy as a Way of Life
264
/111stsrrip1: An 1'1terviem with Pierre Hadot
277
Srlrl'I Ri/Jli11grt1pliy
287
l"'lr.t·
301
Translator's Note
The thought of Pierre Hadot is based on a lifetime's study of, and meditation upon, ancient Greek and Latin philosophical texts. In the course of this long period, he has, of course, developed his own methodology for the study of such texts. Based as it is on the methods of his own teachers, such as Paul Henry and Pierre Courcelle, 1 this method is distinctly his own, and he has transmitted it to a whole generation of French scholars in the field of late antique thought.
The first stage of Hadot's method is a scrupulous, textually critical reading of the original texts, followed by an equally exacting translation of these texts into French. 2 Only on the foundation of the intense, detailed confrontation with the text which real translation demands, Hadot feels, can one begin the processes of exegesis, interpretation, and, perhaps, criticism. Thus, Hadot's thought is, at least to a large extent, based on his methods of translation. This being the case, it is impossible to understand the former without understanding the latter.
Such a situation presents obvious difficulties for Hadot's translators. Given the importance he accords to the study of ancient texts, Hadot tends to quote them frequently and extensively, in his own translations from the Greek, the Latin, and the German. Now, a translator's normal procedure would be to dig up the already existing English translations of the respective texts, and insert them where Hadot's own translations had stood in the original. After much consultation, we have found this method inadequate, for the following reasons: Many existing English translations are themselves inadequate; some are old and outdated; others based on different textual readings from those adopted by Hadot. In the case of still others, finally, no English translation exists at all.
2 There is no such thing as an "objective translation." All ttanslators base their work on their own conception of what their author was trying to say.
Naturally, Hadot has often arrived at views of what his authors meant which differ from those of the various other ttanslators; his own translations consequently differ, sometimes fundamentally, from the existing J<:nglish versions.3
Translator's Note
vii
3 The use of existing English translations would often make Hadot's thought impossible to understand. If we were to insert, for example, a 60-year-old English translation of, say, Marcus Aurelius into the text, and then follow it with Hadot's explanation of the passage, the result would be ludicrously incoherent. Most importantly, it would make it impossible for the reader to gain any notion of the genesis and development of Hadot's thought -
which is, after all, the goal of this publication. As I have said, the origin of Hadot's thought is to be sought in his interpretation of ancient texts, and his translations of these texts are both the result and an integral part of his hermeneutical method. Deprived of his translations, we could simply not see how Hadot had arrived at his particular interpretations of particular ancient texts, and consequently we would be at a loss to understand the conclusions he has based on these interpretations.
This being the case, the method I have chosen to follow in the translation of Spiritual Exercises is the following: in the case of each of Hadot's quotations of passages in Greek, Latin, or German, I have begun by a simple English translation of Hadot's French version. I have then checked the result against the original Greek, Latin, or German. If the English translation of Hadot's version, read on its own, then seemed to me to be a good translation of the original text, I let it stand; if not, I modified it slightly, with two goals in mind: first, to bring it into accord with modern English usage; secondly, to make sure the English transmitted, as far as possible, all the nuances of the original languages. In cases of particular difficulty, I have benefited from Hadot's thoughtful advice and comments, partly by correspondence, and partly during the course of a memorable stay at the Hadot's home in the summer of 1991.4