Pierre Hadot

Pierre Hadot offers a thought-provoking journey through the rich landscape of ancient philosophy in Philosophy as a Way of Life. This captivating work delves into the profound significance of spiritual exercises and their role in shaping the lives and thoughts of philosophers from Socrates to early Christianity. Without giving away spoilers, Hadot meticulously reconstructs the historical context around these exercises,...

The esteemed French philosopher Pierre Hadot’s final work, now available in English. With a foreword by Arnold I. Davidson and Daniele Lorenzini. In his final book, renowned philosopher Pierre Hadot explores Goethe’s relationship with ancient spiritual exercises—transformative acts of intellect, imagination, or will. Goethe sought both an intense experience of the present moment as well as a kind of cosmic...

The Inner Citadel by Pierre Hadot is a profound exploration of one of the most celebrated texts of antiquity, The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. This book delves into the philosophies and reflections of the Roman emperor, who wrote his contemplations as a guide for his own moral and spiritual self-improvement. Marcus Aurelius's introspections are invaluable to anyone interested in ancient...

This collection of writings from Pierre Hadot (1992-2010) presents, for the first time, previously unreleased and, in some cases, untranslated materials from one of the world's most prominent classical philosophers and historians of thought. As a passionate proponent of philosophy as a 'way of life' (most powerfully communicated in the life of Socrates), Pierre Hadot rejuvenated interest in the ancient...

A magisterial mappa mundi of the terrain that Pierre Hadot has so productively worked for decades, this ambitious work revises our view of ancient philosophy—and in doing so, proposes that we change the way we see philosophy itself. Hadot takes ancient philosophy out of its customary realm of names, dates, and arid abstractions and plants it squarely in the thick...

Since its original publication in France in 1963, Pierre Hadot's lively philosophical portrait of Plotinus remains the preeminent introduction to the man and his thought. Michael Chase's lucid translation—complete with a useful chronology and analytical bibliography—at last makes this book available to the English-speaking world. Hadot carefully examines Plotinus's views on the self, existence, love, virtue, gentleness, and solitude. He...