The resulting translations therefore often bear little resemblance to existing English translation; this is especially so in the case of authors like Plato, Marcus Aurelius, and Plotinus, to whom M. Hadot has devoted a lifetime of study. Nevertheless, we have decided to include references to the most accessible - not necessarily the best - extant English translations, in case the interested reader should care to consult the ancient authors cited in this hook.
Such a method is, obviously, more time-consuming than the usual slapdash method of translation. My hope is that the result justifies the delays incurred: I would like to think the result is a scholarly and above all faithful version of 1-lndot's thought.
NOTES
I ( :r. 11b11vc
l funnnl( the 1·c1111ll11 of hi11 work 1111 thi11 Ktllgc of hiN method nrc Hndot's projcc11;
viii
Translator's Note
for completely new translations of those thinkers who have particularly occupied his attention: Plotinus, Marcus Aurelius, Marius Victorinus, etc.
3 This is so even in the case of so eminent a student of Plotinus, and so conscientious a translator, as A.H. Armstrong. Although he, too, has devoted a lifetime of careful study to Plotinus, he often reaches conclusions in the interpretation of particular Plotinian passages which differ from those of Hadot.
The reason for this is not hard to seek: Plotinus is an extremely difficult author, and his writings are susceptible of many different interpretations.
4 Here I should like to express, on behalf of my wife Isabel and myself, our deep gratitude for the Hadots' wonderful hospitality.
Abbreviations
ACW: Ancient Christian Writers, The Works of the Fathers in Translation, eds Johannes Qµasten and Joseph C. Plumpe, Westminster MD/London.
ANF: The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325, eds Rev. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, American Reprint of the Edinburgh Edition, revised and chronologically arranged, with brief prefaces and occasional notes, by A. Cleveland Coxe, Buffalo.
FC: The Fathers of the Chu1·ch. A NeJP Translation, Washington DC.
GCS: Die Griechischen Christ/ichen Scriftsteller der Ersten Jahrhunderte, ed.
Kommission filr Splitantike Religionsgeschichte der Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin.
GW: Gesammelte Werke, S0ren Kierkegaard, Diisseldorf/Cologne 1961.
! CL: Loeb Classical Library, London/Cambridge MA.
..
PG: Patrologia Graeca, ed. J.P. Migne, Paris 18#-55.
PL: Patrologia Latina, ed. J.P. Migne, Paris 1857-66.
SC: Sources chretiennes, Paris 1940ff.
SVF: Stoicorum Vetenum Fragmenta, ed. H. Von Arnim, 4 vols, Leipzig 1903.
Introduction: Pie"e Hadot and the Spiritual
Phenomenon of Ancient Philosophy
I believe it was in 1982 that Michel Foucault first mentioned Pierre Hadot to me. Struck by Foucault's enthusiasm, I photocopied a number of Hadot's articles, but, to my regret, never got around to reading them until several years after Foucault's death. I immediately understood, and shared, Foucault's excitement, for Hadot's work exhibits that rare combination of prodigious historical scholarship and rigorous philosophical argumentation that upsets any preconceived distinction between -the h1story--of phDosophy and philosqphy proper. Expressed in a lucid prose whose clarity and precision urc remarkable, Hadot's work stands as a model for how to write the history of philosophy. This collection of essays will, I hope, help to make his work better known in the English-speaking world; the depth and richness of his writing contain lessons not only for specialists in ancient philosophy, but for nil of us interested in the history of philosophical thought.
Pierre Hadot has spent most of his academic career at the Ecole pratique dL•s Hautes Etudcs and at the College de France. Appointed a directeur d'etudes of the fifth section of the Ecole in 1964, Hadot occupied a chair in Latin Pntristics, where he gave extraordinary lectures, many of which remain unpublished, on, among other topics, the works of Ambrose and Augustine.
In 1972, in response to Hadot's interest in and work on non-Christian I houl{ht, the title of his chair was changed to "Theologies and Mysticisms of I lcllcnistic Greece and the End of Antiquity." Hadot gave courses on Plotinus 111111 M11rcus Aurelius, but also began to devote increased attention to more Ml'ncrnl themes in the history of ancient philosophical and theological thought.
In Fdnunry 1983 he assumed the chair of the History of Hellenistic and Runum Thought at the College de France. He has published translations of 1111d ,·onu11cn111rics on Marius Victorinus, Porphyry, Ambrose, Plotinus, and M111'l"llN AurdiuN. I liM CNNllYN on 11ncicnl philosophy rungc over virtually every
2
Introduction
topic of major significance, and constitute nothing less than a general perspective, both methodologically and substantively, on how to approach and understand the development of the entire history of ancient thought. A reading of Hadot's complete corpus of writings reveals, as one might expect, important essays on the history of medieval philosophy, but also, perhaps more surprisingly, brilliant" contributions to our understanding of Goethe, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein. Hadot has also been increasingly preoccupied with the pertinence of ancient thought for philosophy today, recogmzing that ancient experience raises questions that we cannot and should not overlook or ignore.
This collection of essays is based on the second edition of Exercfres spiritue/s el philosophic antique, originally published in 1987 and now out of print.1 But it also includes a number of essays that were written subsequent to the book, essays that take up, develop, and extend the themes of E:rercices spiritttels.
Moreover, Hadot has made revisions in some of the chapters for their inclusion in this volume, and he has rewritten his discussion of Marcus Aurelius in light of his commentary on the Meditations. 2 Thus this collection represents an expanded discussion of the topics of spiritual exercises and ancient philosophy.
In my introduction, I shall not summarize the individual essays. Rather, I shall try to indicate the general orientation of Hadot's thought, as well as relate these essays to other questions and problems - methodological, historical, and philosophical - treated elsewhere by Hadot. Instead of concentrating on questions of detail, I shall try to highlight some of the philosophical lessons and insights offered to us by Hadot's work.
1 Method and Practices of Interpretation in the History of Ancient Philosophy and Theology
In the summary of his work prepared for his candidacy at the College de France, Hadot wrote:
The problems, the themes, the symbols from which Western thought has developed were not all born, quite obviously, in the period that we have studied. But the West has received them for the most part in the form that was given to them either by Hellenistic thought, or by the adaptation of this thought to the Roman world, or by the encounter between Hellenism and Christianity.J