Pierre Hadot — Ethical disposition to our world with Philosophy as a way of life.
According to Hadot (1995), “philosophy took on the form of an exercise of the thought, will, and the totality of one’s being, the goal of which was to achieve a state practically inaccessible to mankind wisdom“ (Hadot: 1995:265) so to say that “philosophy was a way of life” (1995: 265). Ancient philosophers were aware of the nuances and difficulties that came with being, thus for philosophy as a way of life meant proactively and intentionally making the everyday choice of deciding to do the wise thing, hence the interchangeable use of philosophy and wisdom. Philosophy was a way of life, both in its exercise and effort to achieve wisdom and in its goal, wisdom itself (1995:265).
This meant that the wisdom itself “… then was a way of life which brought peace of mind […], inner freedom […] and a cosmic consciousness. (1995:265). To exercise philosophy as a way of life then, one had to possess wisdom, although this was considered a state not always easily accessible, one had to strive for the harmony of those two ways of being: the first, to achieve a state of being that “[is] armed against both pleasures and desires, and in so doing, the second is achieved, to always strive to keep [oneself] above passions” (1995:264).
