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ArgumentPhilosophy as a way of life
Philosophy is first of all an exercise that transforms the one who practices it, not a system of propositions: 'empty is the word of the philosopher that heals no human suffering'.
Supports
Hadot, Epicurus, the Stoics · · 1995
- For the Ancients, philosophy was not a body of doctrines to learn but a way of life: meditation, self-examination, preparation for hardship, so many exercises that worked on desires, fears, judgments.
- For what troubles us is not so much ignorance of theories as our ill-ordered passions and opinions: knowing that death is nothing is of no use if one goes on fearing it; one must train oneself to live it.
- A doctrine that does not change the one who holds it stays a dead letter: the true measure of a philosophy is the transformation it works, the passage from a troubled life to a freer and more lucid one.
Therefore So philosophy is worth something as medicine for the soul and an art of living: not a discourse added to one's life, but an exercise that remakes it.
How far does this reasoning convince you?
Not at all
Entirely