To my disappointment, Pierre Hadot never came to Poland. It would have been wonderful if he visited, especially in the company of his wife, Ilsetraut Hadot, an outstanding expert in ancient philosophy. Unfortunately, no such travel plans ever materialized. However, I would argue that he has been distinctly present in Poland thanks to his books and the vivid picture of ancient philosophy they paint. Before I proceed to discuss this presence, allow me to share several memories of my private meetings with Pierre Hadot in Paris and of my studies of his writings in Warsaw.
It was not in Paris that I first saw him but in Bonn, at the 1969 congress of the Fédération Internationale des Associations d’Êtudes Classiques, in which we both participated. We were not introduced then as I was simply one of the many people attending his lecture. Still, it was not the Hadot I came to be deeply fascinated with thanks to his metaphilosophical works on Greek philosophy. In fact, during the congress in Bonn he spoke about certain terminological and conceptual subtleties in Boethius’s thought. I became acquainted with Hadot’s original account of ancient philosophy almost a decade later, after he first developed it. This coincided with my own studies in the area of metaphilosophy, which I carried out at the time and some years earlier.
In 1978, I sent the first version of my book titled ‘The ‘Scholastic’ and ‘Humanistic’ Conceptions of Philosophy [„Scholastyczne” i „humanistyczne” pojęcie filozofii] to Zenon Kałuża, a Frenchman of Polish origin and historian of medieval philosophy. In response, he sent me a related text, which employed different yet more apt categories. Entitled “Exercises spirituels,” this long article written by Pierre Hadot was just published around that time in the Bulletin des Sciences Religieuses. It is a metaphilosophical essay on ancient philosophy, which marked the beginning of work on his later book under the same title. Having read Hadot’s brilliant text, I thought it should be translated into Polish. Next year, I had the opportunity to visit Paris and was able to meet Hadot in person through Zenon Kałuża. Although this meeting did not bring the results I wished for, it bore fruit much later and in greater abundance. In the end, the exquisite essay from the Bulletin des Sciences Religieuses was not translated into Polish, but two other things happened. First, in 1990, on his invitation I delivered lectures in his department at the Collège de France. Their text was published in 1996 thanks to Hadot’s efforts, accompanied by his brilliant foreword [see above]. Second, in 1992, Hadot’s first metaphilosophical book Exercises spirituels et philosophie antique, developed from the aforementioned essay, was published in Warsaw. It met with a very favourable response in Poland, sparking a lot of interest and provoking a decent number of reviews. Next, two more of his metaphilosophical books on ancient philosophy were translated into Polish: Qu’est-ce que la philosophie antique? in 2000 (also reprinted later) and La citadelle intérieure in 2004. It so happened that all three of these books were translated by my son Piotr Domański, and all of them have my introductions or afterwords as well as recommendations. Today, twenty-seven years after the first one of them appeared, new editions are planned to be published. Thanks to these translations, Hadot’s vision of ancient philosophy has had the chance to become widely known in Poland.
Across a number of works, Pierre Hadot developed a highly original account of ancient philosophy, describing it in terms of “spiritual exercise,” “therapy for the soul,” “metanoia,” “conversion,” or more generally as a “way of life.” Has his vision been sufficiently noted in Poland? Has it been influential? Have the widely available translations of his crucial works in this area been able to introduce his ideas to Polish scholars studying ancient philosophy? And finally, have these ideas proven to be inspirational?
These questions have not been extensively addressed during previous conferences. Thus, before I proceed to add several points I consider important to the present discussion, I wish to ascertain that this matter calls for more comprehensive, in-depth research. The next year seems to be a good occasion to take up this task. After all, on 24 April 2020, ten years will have passed since Pierre Hadot’s death. There is still enough time to organize an anniversary conference. Just like the present [2019] conference, it could be held in Warsaw. Surely Polish scholars of Antiquity would find sufficient material to describe the reception and influence of Hadot’s vision of ancient philosophy in their own studies and those of their colleagues. Naturally, this does not exclude the possibility of conducting analogous research in other countries, whose representatives specializing in Antiquity would be more than welcome to participate in such an event next year. If it turns out that there is not enough time, two more round anniversaries are on the horizon. In 2021, forty years will have passed since the first French edition of Exercises spirituels et philosophie antique, and in February 2022 we will celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of Pierre Hadot’s birth.
Meanwhile, in anticipation of possible future research, conference presentations, or published texts, allow me to briefly discuss some recent Polish achievements in studies on ancient philosophy, which have been clearly inspired with ideas, concepts, and terms developed by Pierre Hadot. Next, I will pause for a second to attempt a characterization of a book that was published just several weeks ago by one scholar working in this field. In my survey I have included monographs by individual authors, edited volumes, as well as scholarly conferences and their proceedings.
The two books penned by Mateusz Stróżyński and published in 2008 and 2014, respectively—Mystical Experience and Philosophical Discourse in Plotinus and Philosophy as Therapy [Filozofia jako terapia]—can be argued to take inspiration from Hadot’s “spirit of ancient philosophy” (I am taking the liberty of paraphrasing here Gilson’s formula of “l’esprit de la philosophie médiévale”. However, they do so in different ways. It seems to me that in the former book, Hadot’s ideas, concepts or terms constitute an accidental inspiration, as they do not go beyond the level or mode of use appropriate for secondary literature. In the latter, however, Hadot’s inspiration appears to reach down to the structural level, bringing to mind his vision of ancient philosophy, not just because the author included Hadot’s metaphilosophical concept in the title and employs the term “philosophy as therapy,” but primarily because Stróżyński uses them in his own analyses of primary sources, including doxographic texts, that Hadot himself did not interpret in these terms. This kind of creative extension of the scope to which Hadot’s ideas can be applied is also discernible in other cases where he has been a major inspiration.
In 2014, two historians of ancient and mediaeval philosophy from the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Warsaw—Krzysztof Łapiński and Rafał Tichy—organized a two-day conference under a title assembled from Hadot’s terms and concepts: Therapeia, askesis, meditatio. The practical dimension of philosophy in Antiquity and the Middle Ages [Therapeia, askesis, meditatio. Praktyczny wymiar filozofii w starożytności i średniowieczu]. Even more clearly than the previous example, this conference extended, both chronologically and thematically, the historico-philosophical subject matter by adopting the metaphilosophical approach developed by Hadot for the purpose of interpreting ancient philosophy. The thick volume of conference proceedings published three years later contains both clear declarations of scholars who have been inspired by Hadot, and critical engagements with his claims. The book also announced another conference, this time a one-day event held exactly one year ago, on 8 June 2018, under the title Philosophical text as spiritual exercise in Antiquity and the Middle Ages [Tekst filozoficzny jako ćwiczenie duchowe w starożytności i średniowieczu]. Once again, Hadot’s concepts and terms were adopted in a new field of research. As a subject of metaphilosophical discourse, reflection on philosophical writing is found in all three of the above-mentioned books by Hadot. However, this has never been his main and lasting subject as it never gained full autonomy in his work. Nevertheless, his metaphilosophical inspiration certainly enriched the scholarly invention of those participating in this conference.
Hadot’s metaphilosophical method proved to be similarly inspirational in the last case I wish to discuss here, namely the recently published book by Krzysztof Łapiński, organizer of last year’s conference devoted to the practical dimension of philosophical writing in former times. Łapiński’s book must have been already finished, or at least nearing completion when he was facilitating the conference. His study is also representative of the phenomenon I have just outlined, namely the broadening of the area of ancient philosophical and cultural ideas, inspired by the metaphilosophical themes contained in Hadot’s works. The book by Krzysztof Łapiński is titled Ananeou seauton. Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations in the context of Graeco-Roman philosophical practice [Ananeou seauton. Rozmyślania Marka Aureliusza w kontekście grecko-rzymskiej praktyki filozoficznej]. The Greek phrase taken from Marcus Aurelius literally means “renew yourself” and signals the self-reflective character of the emperor-philosopher’s work, specifically that he meant it to be an original internal dialogue, which it in fact is. In this perspective, the premise of the book by Krzysztof Łapiński is equivalent to, or only a slightly different reformulation of Hadot’s metaphilosophical category of “spiritual exercises” (and its synonyms). Thus, it offers only a different take on the same subject that Hadot addresses in La citadelle intérieure. It is the subtitle of Łapiński’s book, which indicates the context of ancient philosophical praxis, that suggests what the author adds and makes an integral part of his argument. As this study proceeds, it becomes apparent how crucial it has been to broaden Hadot’s original scope in order to better grasp this particular work by Marcus Aurelius. The novelty of the approach can be credited to the rich “recontextualization” of a work that lacks in references to its historical background and does not feature any internal metatexts. Łapiński places the Meditations not only in the philosophical context of Stoicism in Roman times, but also in the centuries-long cultural context of the twin classical literatures, a context marked by competition between philosophy and rhetoric as well as characterized by the question of philosophical writing—an issue that provoked lively debates not that long before Marcus Aurelius.
I am deeply convinced that this book deserves to be translated, more than many others, primarily due to its high quality and originality, and not just owing to its status as an opus post-hadotianum. On this note, I wish to end my modest survey of examples that demonstrate the presence and influence of Pierre Hadot’s ideas in Poland. At the same time, I wish to encourage efforts to use some of the aforementioned future anniversaries as an opportunity to verify his impact and enrich our understanding of it.
Juliusz Domański
Text of speech delivered at the University of Warsaw, June 2019
Translated from Polish by Grzegorz Czemiel