Fall 2011 Wisdom Course Class Notes B

October 10, 2011 (10)

Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life

• Statement from Philo of Alexander. 20bc-50ad. Note both vision of integrated wisdom and attributes of the sage. Joy, for example.

• ataraxia, autarkeia -- peace of mind and inner freedom. Note that study of nature was supposed to aid this.

• distinction between "philosophical discourse" and "philosophy" -Hadot's analogy for the difference on 268.

• Philosopy as therapeutic.

"Philosophy presented itself as a method for achieving independence andinner freedom {autarkeia), that state in which the ego depends only uponitself. We encounter this theme in Socrates, among the Cynics, in Aristotle for whom only the contemplative life is independent - in Epicurus," among the Stoics." Although their methodologies differ, we find in allphilosophical schools the same awareness of the power of the human self tofree itself from everything which is alien to it, even if, as in the case of theSkeptics, it does so via the mere refusal to make any decision." 266

• Prosoche -- "care of the self"

• Note mention of Ignatian Exercises.

===Hall, Chapter 6, Moral