2026年03月07日

Philosophy as a way of life

“Philosophy was a way of life, both in its exercise and effort to achieve wisdom, and in its goal, wisdom itself. For real wisdom does not merely cause us to know: it makes us be in a different way” (Hadot 1995, p. 265). So says Pierre Hadot in his book, Philosophy as a Way of Life (1995). In his view, philosophy as a way of life is a kind of spiritual exercise: “the transformation of our vision of the world” and “a metamorphosis of our personality” (Hadot 1995, p. 82). In Greek period, the task of philosophy was not to present a systematic theory of truth but to initiate people, through dialogue, into a process of self transformation. From this stance, Hadot is critical of the current situation of philosophy at the university level. Universities were made up of “philosophers, or professionals training professionals. Education was thus no longer directed toward people who were to be educated with a view to becoming fully developed human beings, but to specialists, in order that they might learn how to train other specialists” (p. 270). In Hadot’s view, philosophy should not be seen purely as an academic subject pursued in university, but in keeping with ancient conceptions, should be a guide to the living of one’s life as a whole. In this respect, it has an intimate connection with education and the development of the whole person. This in turn relates in important ways to the contemporary crisis in mental health. It casts light also on the therapeutic measures that are currently taken in response to these problems and suggests how a broader conception of education might answer to these concerns, including death education.

Against this background, this course will follow the line of thinking that makes philosophy as inseparable from our daily ways of living and dying. We shall illustrate this by watching two films:  “Wonderful Life” (directed by Hirokazu Koreeda, 1999) and “The Tree of Life” (directed by Terrence Malick, 2011). In observing these films, we shall discuss what it means to do philosophy and how we can pursue this. Its implications for mental health education and death education will be discussed.