Matteo Johannes Stettler is a former Masters (MA) and Research Masters (ReMA) student at the Institute of Philosophy of KU Leuven (Belgium). His early research focused mostly on North American thought: especially John Dewey’s experiential pragmatism, and Thoreau and Emerson’s transcendentalism. A former member of the Thoreau Society of Concord, Stettler was eventually introduced to Pierre Hadot and Michel Foucault’s works on ancient spirituality, which now constitute the central axis of all his investigations in the history of philosophy. A supporter of Modern Stoicism, Stettler was awarded the Deakin University Postgraduate Scholarship (DUPRS) to pursue his doctoral studies at Deakin University (Australia), under the supervision of Professor Matthew Sharpe. He collaborates with the research groups “Philosophy as a Way of Life”, of the Pontificia Università Gregoriana of Rome, and “Forms of Life and Practices of Philosophy” (particularly the “Art of Living” line of research) of the NOVA Institute of Philosophy (IFILNOVA) of Lisbon – which he visited for a few months in 2022.

His present doctoral research aims to identify in the reception of Aristotle’s lost Protrepticus among the early Christians (as mediated by Cicero’s Hortensius) a fundamental chapter in the history of spirituality. Stettler has co-authored (with Matthew Sharpe) various articles for Classical Receptions and Philosophy Today; he has also written essays, book reviews, and translations for a variety of non-specialistic journals and magazines. His latest publication, “The τόπος of the Goods of Fortune in Consolatio II and III: How to Console and Exhort Boethius”, is forthcoming in Aeuvm.