Philosophy, Theory or Way of Life? Controversies in Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

Professor Juliusz Domański is a classical philologist, neo-Latinist, and historian of pre-modern philosophy. As the author of around three hundred publications across these disciplines, he has predominantly focused on the Middle Ages and Renaissance as well as on meta-philosophical studies. Associate Professor Matthew Sharpe is National Head of School of Philosophy at Australian Catholic University. He is a co-translator of Pierre Hadot’s Selected Writings: Philosophy as Practice (Bloomsbury 2020), co-author of Philosophy as a Way of Life: History, Dimensions and Directions (Bloomsbury 2021), and co-editor of the Brill series Philosophy as a Way of Life: Texts and Studies. Andrew B. Irvine is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Maryville College, Maryville, Tennessee. He teaches courses in Western and comparative philosophy, and multi-disciplinary approaches to religious studies. His broad research interests cross philosophy as a way of life, the pragmatist tradition, and postcolonial/decolonial thinking. Matteo Stettler, Ph.D. (2024), Deakin University (Australia), is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bologna (Italy) specializing in the notion of philosophy as a way of life and a guide to happiness in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. His research on the subject has appeared in a variety of outlets, including Aevum and the Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum. Krzysztof Jacek Bekieszczuk is a Latinist and theologian, and since 2017, he has been teaching Latin using a communicative approach. His research focuses on Renaissance humanism and the history of the modern era. He is the author of the first Polish translation and commentary on Erasmus of Rotterdam’s Discussion of Free Will. Eli Kramer is an Associate (University) Professor at the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Wrocław. His research explores the complex and often contested relationship between philosophy as a way of life/humane learning traditions and institutions of higher learning across the globe. He also works in innovative/alternative higher education policy and practice. He is co-editor of the Brill series Philosophy as a Way of Life: Texts and Studies. Krzysztof Łapiński (Ph.D. 2016, 'Habilitation' 2019) is an Assistant Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, University of Warsaw. He has translated Marcus Aurelius' Meditations (2011) and Musonius Rufus' Diatribes (2021) into Polish. He is the author of a book on Marcus Aurelius (Ananeou seauton, 2018). His research focuses on Stoicism, Plato, and comparative philosophy.

Contents


Translators’ Note


Foreword


Pierre Hadot in Poland


Preface


Acknowledgments


Translators’ Introduction





1 The Ancient Ideal of the Philosopher and Its Patristic Challenge


 1.1 The Anecdote about Pythagoras


 1.2 The Ancient Definitions of Philosophy


 1.3 The Meaning of “Practice”


 1.4 Three Models of the Relationship between Theory and Practice


 1.5 The Personality of the Philosopher


 1.6 The Ancient Conception Challenged by the Church Fathers





2 The Nature of Philosophy as Seen by the Medieval Scholastics


 2.1 Philosophy Relegated to the Level of the Liberal Arts


 2.2 Some Remarks on the Continuation of the Tradition of Boethius’ Consolation


 2.3 The Liberal Arts and Philosophy


 2.4 The Scholasticism of the 13th Century


 2.5 The Wisdom of Philosophy and Christian Wisdom


 2.6 The “Essential” Parts and the “Less Important” Parts of Philosophy





3 The Crisis of the Scholastic Conception


 3.1 The Survival of the Patristic Vocabulary


 3.2 Peter Abelard and the Ancient Philosophers


 3.3 The Non-scholastic Tendencies of the 13th Century


 3.4 The Reinforcement of the Non-scholastic Tendencies in the 14th and 15th Centuries


 3.5 Jean Gerson and the “Atopia” of the Philosophers





4 The Humanists and Philosophy


 4.1 Balance Sheet of Our Preceding Findings


 4.2 Melior Fieri: Philosophy and Goodness in Petrarch and the Devotio Moderna


 4.3 Biographies and Apothegms of the Philosophers: Pseudo-Burley and Ambrogio Traversari


 4.4 The Humanists in Search of the Philosophical Personality


 4.5 Erasmus and Philosophy


Appendix: Atopia and Other Topics: Philosophy and Philology in Juliusz Domański’s Work


Index of Proper Names