Further Reading and References
7. Following Socrates: A Way of Life
The discussion of Plato’s Academy in Chapter 4 of Plato: An Introduction,
by Paul Friedländer, published by Princeton University Press (1973) and
translated by Hans Meyerhoff is fairly old now but is hard to beat.
The Seneca quote is from Moral Epistles 6, 6.
The Plato quote from the Seventh Letter is at 341c.
Pierre Hadot’s idea of philosophy as a way of life is developed in several
books. An accessible text is What Is Ancient Philosophy?, published by
Harvard University Press (2002). The quote I use can be found on page
62 of this book.
Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault, edited
with an introduction by Arnold I. Davidson and translated by Michael
Chase, published by Blackwell (1995), develops the idea further.
The Art of Living: Socratic Refl ections from Plato to Foucault, by Alexander
Nehamas, published by University of California Press (1998), is also
fascinating.
Plato’s myth in the Gorgias begins at 523a.
Aristotle’s characterisation of the wise man is in his Nicomachean Ethics
1125a12.
The quote from Montaigne is in his essay ‘On educating children’
(I: 26). The Complete Essays, translated by M.A. Screech, is published
by Penguin Classics. The quote is on page 180.
A summary of Michel Foucault’s idea of thinking differently is in the
introduction to the second volume of his History of Sexuality, The Use
of Pleasure. The seminar he gave on 6 January 1982, transcribed in The
Hermeneutics of the Subject: Lectures at the Collège de France 1981–1982,
published by Palgrave Macmillan (2005), focuses on the relationship
between Christian and ancient philosophical moral practice. Some of
the interviews in Foucault: Live Collected Interviews, 1961–1984, edited
by Sylvère Lotringer (Semiotext[e], 1996), are also illuminating.
Essays and Aphorisms, by Arthur Schopenhauer, with an introduction
by R.J. Hollingdale, published by Penguin Classics (1970), is a good
introduction to his thought and way of life. Schopenhauer’s equiv-
ocation about whether philosophy can change a life is discussed in
Schopenhauer, by Julian Young, published by Routledge (2005), on
pages 158–64.
Bryan Magee writes about knowing Karl Popper in his Confessions of
a Philosopher: A Journey through Western Philosophy, published by
Phoenix (1997). Popper on Socrates is discussed on page 561.
Unended Quest, by Karl Popper, is published by Routledge (1992), with
the quote about happiness on page 145.
On Religion, by John Caputo, is published by Routledge (2001).