• Ciceronianus
    3k
    The goal of the ancient philosophies, Hadot argued, was to cultivate a specific, constant attitude toward existence, by way of the rational comprehension of the nature of humanity and its place in the cosmos.

    Yes. I like Hadot. He wrote an interesting book on Marcus Aurelius' Meditations arguing they were a kind of Stoic practice.
  • Wayfarer
    22.3k
    Excellent. That's more or less the point I was labouring to make. You wouldn't see much of it in academic philosophy lectures, though.
  • Mikie
    6.7k
    then 16 I lost 'my religion' (I'd realized I did not 'believe in' Catholicism or the God of the Bible) and then @17 had my first philosophy class (textbook – From Socrates to Sartre).180 Proof

    By TZ Lavine? That’s great. They have her reading her own material on YouTube from a series years ago which I like a lot.

    Your post was interesting— thanks for contributing.



    Thanks for clarifying. I understand now!

    I feel there's a connection between philosophy and a willingness to look analytically at things which hurt the eyes. Do you?fdrake

    Sure. The questions we call philosophical are often hard to ask and look at.

    At some stage in this confessional thread one might start to see a pattern; so far the obvious pattern is that philosophers like to display their examined lives, and think it serious and worthwhile to do so.unenlightened

    Yes — and that religion plays a big role in our paths to philosophy, which is interesting to me.
  • Mikie
    6.7k
    Name one cheerful philosopher.Ciceronianus

    Neitzsche!
  • 180 Proof
    15.3k
    Thanks for the reference to T.Z. Lavine
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelma_Z._Lavine – this wiki is fascinating, I'd never heard of her –
    but the author of the text I had used in 1980-81 (publ. 1966), with the same title as Lavine's (publ. 1984), was Samuel Enoch Stumpf. (I've never heard of him either and there isn't even a wiki.)

    :up:
  • Moliere
    4.6k
    Well... to be fair he's more cheerful in the sexy murder poet way. (Liam Kofi Bright's Two Tendencies linked: it answers the question why "we" do philosophy)
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