Philosophical Mythoi: The Birth of Spirituality from the Nature of Things

Gianfranco Ferraro

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Chapter 4 Philosophical Mythoi: The Birth of Spirituality from the Nature of Things

In: Hadot and Foucault on Ancient Philosophy

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Gianfranco Ferraro

Gianfranco Ferraro
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 89–114

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004693524_006

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Abstract

This chapter pretends to clarify genealogically how the notion of “spirituality” represents the core of a philosophy approached as a way of life. Taking into account Hadot’s conceptualization of “spiritual exercises” and Foucault’s genealogy of the “care of the self”, I show how “spirituality” is the premise of any philosophical practice involving a transformation, or a conversion, of existence. Against foundationalist interpreters who identify spirituality with religion, I show how spiritual elements already influence Plato and the Presocratic tradition. The Orphic and Pythagorean inheritance within, on the one hand, Plato’s use of mythos and of dialogues and, on the other hand, Empedocles’s philosophical poetry, recovered by Lucretius, allows us to approach spirituality as a meta-philosophical concept. In conclusion, I argue that philosophy contained from its beginning a spiritual element, which resulted from the fact that it involved a transformation of psukhē in its relation with phusis.

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Hadot and Foucault on Ancient Philosophy

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Series: Philosophy as a Way of Life, Volume: 5

Cover Hadot and Foucault on Ancient Philosophy

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004693524

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 20 Feb 2024

Subjects
- Philosophy
  - Ancient Philosophy
  - 19th & 20th Century Philosophy

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Chapter 4 Philosophical Mythoi: The Birth of Spirituality from the Nature of Things

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Hadot and Foucault on Ancient Philosophy

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