Pursuits of Wisdom: Six Ways of Life in Ancient Philosophy from Socrates to Plotinus. By John M. Cooper

Philosophical Practice as Spiritual Exercises towards Truth, Wisdom, and Virtue

“…It is noteworthy that, on the one hand, reading refers not only to the act of reading texts but also to reading life as such, and the reading of texts is an exercise for reading life; on the other hand, writing refers not only to the writing of essays but also to writing the story of one's own life. Cooper (2007Cooper ( , 2012 seems to miss this metaphorical point. Nevertheless, we acknowledge that Cooper's criticism against Hadot actually has its points, and to avoid the possible confusion and controversy, we need to identify philosophical practice as spiritual exercises in the broad sense and also in the narrow sense and to distinguish a "philosophical" way of life from a life guided by religion, tradition, or some other source alone (Grimm and Cohoe 2021).…”

“…Etymologically speaking, "philosophy" comes from the Greek word "philosophia", which means "love of wisdom". Therefore, the wisdom-orientation of philosophy is generally acceptable for most philosophers (Cooper 2012;Hadot 1995). However, when speaking of truth and virtue, the situation is more complicated.…”

“…However, the idea of conceiving philosophical practice as spiritual exercises is controversial. John Cooper argues that the concept of spiritual exercises as Hadot develops it has distorted the genuine nature of ancient philosophical practice because Hadot erred in claiming that "spiritual exercises" are pervasive among ancient philosophers and central to their ways of life, while, in fact, this judgment only applies to certain Roman (and particularly Neoplatonic) philosophers and are thus far less central to ancient philosophy than Hadot has claimed (Cooper 2007(Cooper , 2012. Furthermore, Cooper goes on to criticize that Hadot's language of spirituality and the associated idea that becoming a philosopher entails a personal choice import existentialist concerns with the state of one's self that are at odds with ancient philosophy's commitment to the use of one's reason as the sole basis for one's way of life (Del Nido 2018; Grimm and Cohoe 2021).…”

“…Furthermore, Cooper goes on to criticize that Hadot's language of spirituality and the associated idea that becoming a philosopher entails a personal choice import existentialist concerns with the state of one's self that are at odds with ancient philosophy's commitment to the use of one's reason as the sole basis for one's way of life (Del Nido 2018; Grimm and Cohoe 2021). Most important of all, since the term "spiritual exercises" originates from St. Ignatius of Loyola's Exercitia Spiritualia, Cooper doubts that St. Ignatius' spiritual exercises, which focus on ends and are imaginative or rhetorical, can inspire devotion to sacred texts or "intense feelings of conviction" by which we understand ourselves and how we ought to live (Cooper 2012;Del Nido 2018;Moberg and Calkins 2001).…”

Good reasons to philosophize: On Hadot, Cooper, and ancient philosophical protreptic

“…It also anticipates one of the key disputes surrounding Pierre Hadot's influential metaphilosophical work on ancient philosophy as a way of life ( manière de vivre or mode de la vie ). John M. Cooper and Thomas Flynn have argued that Hadot's vision of ancient philosophy misrepresents its object, in particular by presenting the initial “conversion” of a student to one or other philosophical orientation as an “existential choice,” without prior rational justification (Flynn 2005; Cooper 2009, 2012). For Cooper, by contrast, the process of becoming a philosopher involves an initial commitment only to “living according to reason,” as against choosing a particular dogmatic orientation and way of life (Cooper 2009, 20, 23).…”