Good reasons to philosophize : On Hadot, Cooper, and ancient philosophical protreptic

Journal article

Sharpe, Matthew. (2024). Good reasons to philosophize : On Hadot, Cooper, and ancient philosophical protreptic. Metaphilosophy. 55(2), pp. 231-248. https://doi.org/10.1111/meta.12680
AuthorsSharpe, Matthew
Abstract

This paper reassesses the Cooper-Hadot debate surrounding how students are converted to philosophy as a way of life (section 1) through engagement with philosophical protreptics. In section 2, the paper identifies the core “argument from finality” in philosophical protreptics seeking to convert non-philosophers to philosophy, starting from the universal human interest in securing eudaimonia. In line with Cooper, this argument seeks to persuade prospective students on rational grounds, so that their choice to philosophise would be rationally motivated. In section 3.1, the paper illustrates how in Plato's Euthydemus (a) the choice to undertake philosophy is rationally justified by Socrates, using the eudaimonistic argument from finality. In section 3.2, by recourse to Aristotle's Protrepticus, the paper shows how the protreptic texts also compared philosophy to other intellectual pursuits, notably rhetoric, so as to recommend philosophy specifically for delivering a directive wisdom concerning how to live.

KeywordsJohn M. Cooper; metaphilosophy; Pierre Hadot; protreptic; reason
Year01 Jan 2024
JournalMetaphilosophy
Journal citation55 (2), pp. 231-248
PublisherWiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd. (UK)
ISSN0026-1068
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1111/meta.12680
Web address (URL)https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/meta.12680
Open accessPublished as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
Research or scholarlyResearch
Page range231-248
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Open
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online20 May 2024
Publication process dates
AcceptedApr 2024
Deposited09 Dec 2024
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© 2024 The Authors. Metaphilosophy published by Metaphilosophy LLC and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Place of publicationUnited Kingdom
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