Sunday 25 April 2010

RIP Pierre Hadot

Pierre Hadot (b.1922) has just recently died in Paris. He will be sorely missed. For those of you who do not know him, he was an outstanding philospher and very influential. He was a major influence on Michel Foucault. Hadot was also notable for introducing Wittgenstein to France. Some of his most well known works in the Anglophone world were Philosophy as a Way of Life and What is Ancient Philosophy? I would reccommend these texts to everyone. The latter is one of the finest introductions you will get to Ancient Philosophy and is an outstanding model of applied scholarship.

3 comments:

  1. This is very sad news indeed. "What is Ancient Philosophy" made a deep impression on me when I was rather young. Of course I went on to read Foucault and his peers, but Hadot had his very own space, and always will.

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  2. Ive just had a little google on him. Im rather curious (especially because of the proto-Foucault work). I think 'what is ancient philosophy' will be one of my summer reads. Its got to be better than the greek section in russell's 'history of philosophy.'

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  3. Hadot was big influence on me in many ways - Philosophy as a Way of Life made me look at ancient philosophy is an entirely new way.

    A great loss, may perpetual light shine upon him.

    Neil Turnbull

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