Any Pierre Hadot fans out there? Or Hadot-haters? I read his "What is Ancient Philosophy?" about 2 years ago and I found his approach to ancient philosophy to be extremely refreshing - especially compared to the ham-fisted anachronisms of the so-called "analytical" philosophers' approach to ancient philosophy.
The three things that I most appreciate about that book in particular are:
(1) Hadot's unitary vision of ancient philosophy as a single coherent phenomenon - so that the commonalities of the various "schools" is emphasized over their divisions.
(2) Hadot's attention to late antique philosophy, especailly "neoplatonism".
(3) I also really liked his treatment of Stoic philosophy, and so now I'm reading "The Inner Citadel".
There's one other thing that I liked about the book, now that I think of it. Hadot presents a mostly implicit, but at the same time devastating, critique of Christianity's influence on the intellectual history of the West. One Christian reviewer, Benjamin Balint, even wrote a review of the book titled "What Christianity Did To Philosophy" - which was meant to be sarcastic. That review used to be available online directly from the magazine "First Things" where it was originally published - but now I think it's only available to subscribers. The bottom line is that Balint states that Hadot "confidently identifies Christianity as the agent of philosophy’s decline."
The three things that I most appreciate about that book in particular are:
(1) Hadot's unitary vision of ancient philosophy as a single coherent phenomenon - so that the commonalities of the various "schools" is emphasized over their divisions.
(2) Hadot's attention to late antique philosophy, especailly "neoplatonism".
(3) I also really liked his treatment of Stoic philosophy, and so now I'm reading "The Inner Citadel".
There's one other thing that I liked about the book, now that I think of it. Hadot presents a mostly implicit, but at the same time devastating, critique of Christianity's influence on the intellectual history of the West. One Christian reviewer, Benjamin Balint, even wrote a review of the book titled "What Christianity Did To Philosophy" - which was meant to be sarcastic. That review used to be available online directly from the magazine "First Things" where it was originally published - but now I think it's only available to subscribers. The bottom line is that Balint states that Hadot "confidently identifies Christianity as the agent of philosophy’s decline."
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