The goal of the ancient philosophies, Hadot argued, was to cultivate a specific, constant attitude toward existence, by way of the rational comprehension of the nature of humanity and its place in the cosmos.

Yes. I like Hadot. He wrote an interesting book on Marcus Aurelius' Meditations arguing they were a kind of Stoic practice.

Excellent. That's more or less the point I was labouring to make. You wouldn't see much of it in academic philosophy lectures, though.

then 16 I lost 'my religion' (I'd realized I did not 'believe in' Catholicism or the God of the Bible) and then @17 had my first philosophy class (textbook – From Socrates to Sartre). — 180 Proof

By TZ Lavine? That’s great. They have her reading her own material on YouTube from a series years ago which I like a lot.

Your post was interesting— thanks for contributing.



Thanks for clarifying. I understand now!

I feel there's a connection between philosophy and a willingness to look analytically at things which hurt the eyes. Do you? — fdrake

Sure. The questions we call philosophical are often hard to ask and look at.

At some stage in this confessional thread one might start to see a pattern; so far the obvious pattern is that philosophers like to display their examined lives, and think it serious and worthwhile to do so. — unenlightened

Yes — and that religion plays a big role in our paths to philosophy, which is interesting to me.

Name one cheerful philosopher. — Ciceronianus

Neitzsche!

Thanks for the reference to T.Z. Lavine
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelma_Z._Lavine – this wiki is fascinating, I'd never heard of her –
but the author of the text I had used in 1980-81 (publ. 1966), with the same title as Lavine's (publ. 1984), was Samuel Enoch Stumpf. (I've never heard of him either and there isn't even a wiki.)

:up:

Well... to be fair he's more cheerful in the sexy murder poet way. (Liam Kofi Bright's Two Tendencies linked: it answers the question why "we" do philosophy)