Of Cartesianism and spiritual exercises : Reading Descartes through Hadot, and Hadot through Descartes

Journal article


Stettler, Matteo J. and Sharpe, Matthew. (2022). Of Cartesianism and spiritual exercises : Reading Descartes through Hadot, and Hadot through Descartes. Philosophy Today. 66(3), pp. 471-489. https://doi.org/10.5840/philtoday2022318445
AuthorsStettler, Matteo J. and Sharpe, Matthew
Abstract

This article challenges the recurrent critique that Pierre Hadot’s identification of ancient philosophy with the practice of spiritual exercises introduces a non- or irrational dimension into metaphilosophy. The occasion to do this is provided by Kerem Eksen’s recent reading of Descartes’s Meditations as consisting of solely intellectual, rather than spiritual, exercises—since the latter, Eksen claims, involve extrarational means and ends. Part 2 presents an alternative account of the role of cognition in the ancient meditatio at issue in understanding Descartes’s antecedents. This account is indebted to Michel Foucault’s characterization of ancient meditation as involving two cognitive mechanisms: an appropriation of thought, and an experiment in identification. Part 3 argues that attempts such as Eksen’s to depict spiritual exercises as wholly noncognitive themselves are the product of an “unexamined Cartesianism” that is fundamentally at odds with the monistic psychology of ancient Stoics like Marcus Aurelius as discussed in Hadot’s studies.

KeywordsDescartes; Hadot; Foucault; spiritual exercises; meditation
Year2022
JournalPhilosophy Today
Journal citation66 (3), pp. 471-489
PublisherPhilosophy Documentation Centre
ISSN0031-8256
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.5840/philtoday2022318445
Scopus EID2-s2.0-85131426592
Page range471-489
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Output statusPublished
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Online2022
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Deposited15 Nov 2023
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