Author: Pierre Hadot
Quotes:
- “The care of the self” by Foucault? “practices of the self” (pratiques de soi): arts of existence and techniques of the self
- “To know oneself means, among other things, to know oneself qua non-sage: that is, not as a sophos, but as a philo-sophos, someone on the way toward wisdom.”
- If we can trust the portrait sketched by Plato and Aristophanes, Socrates, master of dialogue with others, was also a master of dialogue with himself, and, therefore, a master of the practice of spiritual exercises.
- The intimate connection between dialogue with others and dialogue with oneself is profoundly significant. Only he who is capable of a genuine encounter with the other is capable of an authentic encounter with himself, and the converse is equally true.
- Each in its own way, all schools believed in the freedom of the will, thanks to which man has the possibility to modify, improve, and realize himself.
- One conception was common to all the philosophical schools: people are
unhappy because they are the slave of their passions. In other words, they are unhappy because they desire things they may not be able to obtain, since they are exterior, alien, and superfluous to them. It follows that happiness consists in independence, freedom, and autonomy. In other words, happiness is the return to the essential: that which is truly “ourselves,” and which depends on us. Much the same thing can be said for Stoicism. With the help of the
distinction between what does and does not depend on us; we can reject all
that is alien to us, and return to our true selves. In other words, we can
achieve moral freedom. Finally, the same also holds true for Epicureanism. By ignoring unnatural
and unnecessary desires, we can return to our original nucleus of freedom and
independence, which may be defined by the satisfaction of natural and necessary desire.
Under normal circumstances, the only state accessible to man is philo-sophia: the love of, or
progress toward, wisdom.
- In fact, the goal of Stoic exercises is to go beyond the self, and think and act in unison with universal reason. The three exercises described by Marcus Aurelius,9 following Epictetus, are highly significant in this regard
In Stoicism, attention was oriented toward the purity of one’s intentions.
In other words, its objective was the conformity of our individual will with
reason, or the will of universal nature. In Epicureanism, by contrast, attention
was oriented toward pleasure, which is, in the last analysis, the pleasure of
existing. In order to realize this state of attention, however, a number of
exercises were necessary: intense meditation on fundamental dogmas, the
ever-renewed awareness of the finitude of life, examination of one’s conscience, and, above all, a specific attitude toward time