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N.2/2025 L'eredità di Pierre Hadot. Per una filosofia come modo di vivere

Vivere secondo lo spirito. Pierre Hadot e la filosofia come esercizio psicagogico di trasformazione

Giuseppe D'Acunto

Published in June, 2026

Living according to the spirit. Pierre Hadot and philosophy as a psychagogical exercise in transformation

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Abstract

The recovery of the idea of psychagogy from its platonic sources was carried on, in the second half of the twentieth century, especially by Michel Foucault and Pierre Hadot. For both, psychagogical, as synonymous with spiritual, implies the idea of a “transformation of oneself”: an idea that configures philosophy as an “ascetic” practice that allows access to a particular way of life. However, in the developments that this idea undergoes in both thinkers, the two paths diverge, in that while Foucault never abandons the plane of immanence, Hadot tends to take, instead, a transcendent perspective. For the latter, in fact, very important is the reason why the philosopher, living “according to the spirit”, thus submits to the objective criterion of the logos and to the norm of Good.

Keywords

Foucault, Hadot, Psychagogy, Spirituality, Life Choice.

DOI

10.53129/gcsi_02-2025-02

Critical Journal of History of Ideas
International Philosophy Journal

Editor-in-chief
Andrea Tagliapietra and Sebastiano Ghisu

Editor
Giovanni Campus

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Authorized by Tribunale di Sassari n.455 del 14/7/2008 - ISSN 2035-732X - ISSN (Paper edition) 2035-732X

Credits:

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