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Self Examination, Philosophical Education and Spirituality
Author(s) -
Neiman Alven M.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of philosophy of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.501
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9752
pISSN - 0309-8249
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9752.00195
Subject(s) - socrates , philosophy of education , spirituality , epistemology , philosophy , philosophy of life , philosophy education , western philosophy , sociology , higher education , law , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , political science
As a contribution to thinking about the possibility of spiritual education, I examine Pierre Hadot's important distinction between ‘philosophy as theory’, a detached investigation into ‘the natures of things’, and ‘philosophy as a way of life’, practical exercises which Socrates introduced as a means of ‘learning to die’. While most philosophy today amounts to ‘philosophy as theory’, ‘philosophy as a way of life’ remains a respectable and viable tradition and a most exacting education of the spirit. I illustrate it here through an examination of some of its practitioners such as St Bernard of Clairvaux, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Etty Hillesum.