The place of discourse in philosophy as a way of life

Abstract

is well known for his investigation of the nature of philosophy in Greco-Roman times and his identification of many of its distinctive properties. His work on the importance of philosophy for the life of human beings has been particularly relevant. This contrasts with the emphasis that current philosophers put on theory, or "discourse" construction, to use Hadot's term, apart from whether it is relevant for human life or not. These days, philosophy, especially analytic philosophy, conceives of itself as "the disciplined pursuit of objective knowledge, and thus resembling the natural sciences" (Rorty 1999). Its role in our lives is at most indirect-if one happens to be a professional philosopher-or virtually nonexistent-as it very likely is for most people.The principles of philosophy are not what they were in the past, namely, the rules for living a flourishing life. 1 Today, one typically thinks of philosophy as a set of propositions describing 1 There have of course been modern philosophers who viewed philosophy as a way of life. For example, Descartes, Montaigne, Spinoza, and Bergson, but such cases are the exceptions that prove the rule.