The work Hadot and Foucault on Ancient Philosophy. Critical Assessments, edited by CultureLab member Marta Faustino and Hélder Telo (University of Beira Interior) has just been published by Brill.

The affinities between Pierre Hadot’s and Michel Foucault’s interpretations of ancient philosophy, as well as their impact in classical studies and contemporary discussions on philosophy as a way of life, are well-known. However, these interpretations have been criticized in several crucial points. This book provides the first extensive critical assessment of these interpretations. It brings together specialists in ancient philosophy, as well as Hadot and Foucault scholars, in order both to explore criticisms and clarify Hadot’s and Foucault’s accounts. In doing so, it not only offers an overview of the main trends in Philosophy as a Way of Life, but also recasts the debate and opens new paths of inquiry in the field.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Task of Assessing Hadot’s and Foucault’s Interpretations of Ancient Philosophy
Marta Faustino and Hélder Telo

PART 1: General Accounts

1 To What Extent Can Greek Philosophy Be Characterized as an “Art of Living”?
Christoph Horn

2 Ancient Philosophy as a Way of Life Examined: Clearing up the Confusion between “Way of Life” and “Art of Life”
Annie Larivée

3 The Problem of the Dandy in the Aesthetics of Existence: Foucault’s Dialogue with Hadot, Kant, and Baudelaire
Paul Allen Miller

PART 2: Spirituality

4 Philosophical Mythoi: the Birth of Spirituality from the Nature of Things
Gianfranco Ferraro

5 A Contamination of Philosophy by Religion? Reassessing Hadot’s Notion of Spiritual Exercises
Marta Faustino

6 Pierre Hadot and His Critics on Spiritual Exercises and Cosmic Consciousness: from Ancient Philosophy to Contemporary Neurology
Michael Chase

7 Ancient Stoicism: between Spiritual Exercises and Cognitive Therapy
Konrad Banicki

8 Towards a Comparative Archaeology of the Notion of “Spiritual”: Michel Foucault and “Ancient Philosophy” as “Spirituality”
Pierre Vesperini

PART 3: Logos and Truth

9 On the Role of Reason in Ancient Philosophical Practice: an Intellectualist Reframing of Hadot’s and Foucault’s Approach
Hélder Telo

10 Foucault on Parrhēsia and Rhetoric: a Reassessment
Daniele Lorenzini

11 From Speech to Pure Visibility: a Problem in Foucault’s Conception of Socratic Parrhesia
Paulo Alexandre Lima

12 Between Care of the Other and Truth-Telling: the Place of Epicureanism in the Interrupted Dialogue between Michel Foucault and Pierre Hadot
Federico Testa

PART 4: Hermeneutical Questions

13 Physics, Periodization & Platonism: Inflecting the Foucault-Hadot Dialogue in Light of L’Herméneutique du sujet
Matthew Sharpe

14 Foucault, Reader of Plato: the Problem of ἐπιμέλεια τοῦ βίου
Fábio Serranito

15 Aristotle and Philosophy as a Way of Life
John Sellars

16 Creative Error Genealogy: toward a Method in the History of Philosophy
Eli Kramer and Gary Herstein

Index

Hadot and Foucault on Ancient Philosophy. Critical Assessments
Fuastino, M., Telo, H. (Eds.)
ISBN 9789004693517

Order here.