Philosophy as a way of life

9 Seneca, Letter, 20, 2: "Philosophy teaches us how to act, not how to talk."

10 Epictetus, Discourses, I, 4, 1 4ff: spiritual progress does not consist in learning how to explain Chrysippus better, but in transforming one's own freedom; cf. 2, 1 6, 34.

1 1 Epictetus, Discourses, I, I S, 2: "The subject-matter of the art of living (i .e. philosophy) is the life of every individual;" cf. I, 26, 7. Plutarch, Table-talk, I, 2, 623B: "Since philosophy is the art of living, it should not be kept apart from any pastime."

12 Galen, Galen On the Passio11s and Errors of the Soul, I, 4, p. 1 1 , 4 Marquardt:

"make yourself better."

13 On conversion, cf. Arthur Darby Nock, Conversion, Oxford 1 933, pp. 1 64-86; Pierre Hadot "Epistrophe et Metanoia dans l'historie de la philosophic," in Actes du lie Congres International de Philosophie 1 2, Brussels 19S3, pp. 3 1 -6; Pierre Hadot, "Conversio," in Historiches Wiirterbuch der Pl1ilosophie, vol. 1, cols 1033-6, 1 97 1 .

1 4 Seneca, Letter, 6, l : " I feel, my dear Lucilius, that I am being not only reformed, but transformed . . I

.

therefore wish to impart to you this sudden change in myself."

IS Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, 3, 6: "Truly, philosophy is the medicine of the soul"; cf. Epictetus, Discourses, 2, 2 1 , I S; 22. Chrysippus wrote a Therapeutics of the Passio,,s; cf. S VF, vol. 3, §474. Cf. also the aphorism attributed to Epicurus by Usener (Epicurea, fr. 22 1 = Porphyry Ad Marcel/am, 3 1 , p. 294, 7-8 Nauck):

"Vain is the word of that philosopher which does not heal any suffering of man."

According to H. Chadwick, The Sentences of Sextus, Cambridge 1 959, p. 1 78, n.

336, this sentence is Pythagorean. Cf. Epictetus, Discourses, 3, 23, 30: "The philosopher's school is a clinic."

16 The Epicurean method must be distinguished from that of the Stoics. According to Olympiodorus, CommePltary on tl1e First Aldbiiltles of Plaw, pp. <>, MT; 54, 1 5ff; 1 4S, 1 2ff Wcsterink, the Stoics cure contraries by contraries; the Pyth11gnrc11n11

let the patient taste the passions with hili linger1i1>11; 1md SucrntcH 1 rc11111 hi�

patients by homeopathy, le11Jing them, for ux11n11llc, from t he lnw 111' ll.'rrvN1 ri11l

Spiritual Exercises

1 1 1

beauty to the love of eternal beauty. Cf. also Proclus, In Alcibordtm, p. 1 5 1 , 1 4, vol. 2, p. 2 1 7 Segonds.

17 Cf. below. We find the distinction between what depends on us and what does not depend on us in Epictetus, Discourses, I, 1 , 7; I, 4, 27; I, 22, 9; 2, 5, 4; and Epictetus, Manual, ch. 4.

18 Many Stoic treatises entitled On Exercises have been lost; cf. the list of titles in Diogenes Laertius, 7, 1 66-7. A short treatise entitled On Exercise, by Musonius Rufus, has been preserved (pp. 22-7 Hense). After a general introduction concerning the need for exercises in philosophy, Rufus recommends physical exercises: becoming used to foul weather, hunger, and thirst. These exercises benefit the soul, giving it strength and temperance. He then recommends exercises designed particularly for the soul, which, says Rufus, consist in steeping oneself in the demonstrations and principles bearing on the distinction between real and apparent goods and evils. With the help of these exercises, we will get into the habit of not fearing what most people consider as evils: poverty, suffering, and death. One chapter of Epictetus' Disco1mes is dedicated to askesis (3, 1 2, 1-7). Cf. bc:low . The: treatise 011 Exerdse by the PseudoPlutarch, preserved in Arabic (cf. J. Gildmeister and F. Bilcheler, "PseudoPlutarchos Peri askisefis,"

Rheit1isches Museum NF 27 ( 1 872), pp. 520-38), is of no particular interest in this context.

1 9 Philo Judaeus, Who is the Heir of Divi11e Things, 253.

20 Philo Judaeus, Allegorical lmerpretations, 3, 1 8 .

2 1 The word therapeiai can also mean acts of worship, and this meaning would be entirely possible in Philo's mind. Nevertheless, in the present context it seems to me that it designates the therapeutics of the passions. Cf. Philo Judaeus, On 1/1e Special Laws, I, 1 9 1 ; 1 97; 230; 2, 1 7.