Marta Faustino (NOVA Lisbon) has just launched a new project, “Mapping Philosophy as a Way of Life: An Ancient Model, a Contemporary Approach.” This will involve a two-year monthly international online seminar, two international conferences, and other events, many of them involving scholars of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. Here’s the project’s description of its context, assumptions, and approach, shared from its website: Context Over the past few decades, the idea of philosophy as a way of life (PWL) has given rise to several lively philosophical debates. Pierre Hadot forged the expression to emphasise the performative potential of philosophy and the role it can ideally play in transforming – rather…
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Wisdom for Finite People
I’m pleased to share my post, “Reason and the Life to Come, for the APA Blog’s series on philosophy as way of life. I share my own background and journey in philosophy, why I disagree with John Cooper about Socrates and the role of reason in ancient philosophy, an overview of the approach to spiritual exercises that Stephen Grimm and I defend, and how Augustine offers a model of living philosophically as a progressor or wayfarer.
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Teaching Ancient Philosophy Online
Evan Strevell, Teaching Professor at Xavier University, writes: “with more or less two months to go, I was wondering whether it might be worthwhile to attempt some kind of call for the sharing of best practices specifically for teaching ancient philosophy online and / or in a hybrid format. It would be especially beneficial if veterans of teaching ancient philosophy online could share how they set up individual modules, the Student Learning Objectives [SLOs] for those modules, and tools for assessment of those SLOs. Prior to last semester’s panicked switch, I had never taught online. This Fall I have an ancient survey. I am hoping to be able to teach…
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PhiLife Site Launches!
The Mellon Philosophy as a Way of Life Network website is now live: philife.nd.edu Our official website for the project features a pump-up video, bios of involved faculty and staff, teaching resources, and lots of information about our project ambitions. Check it out here! We are also looking for help in making the digital side of this project even better. If you have any materials for our Resource page (syllabi, assignments, grading materials, videos, anything!), please pass them on. We are looking for any non-copyright materials that you find useful in teaching or researching philosophy as a way of life. We are also looking for blog posts about Philosophy as…
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Interview with Tushar Irani (Wesleyan) on Exercises for Teaching the Platonic Way of Life
Tushar Irani holds a joint appointment at Wesleyan in the Department of Philosophy and the College of Letters. In his teaching, he has developed a number of exercises helping students to explore what it would be like to live a Platonic, Aristotelian, Stoic, or Epicurean life. The previous post shared the inspiration and history behind his development of these exercises. Here is the most recent version of his exercises inviting students to Live Like a Platonist: The Life of Reason. In this part of the interview, we talk about his experience with using these exercises. What difference do you think actually having your students do mathematics makes, as opposed to just hearing that…
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Interview with Tushar Irani (Wesleyan) on Exercises for Teaching Ancient Schools as Ways of Life
Tushar Irani holds a joint appointment at Wesleyan in the Department of Philosophy and the College of Letters. His recent book, Plato on the Value of Philosophy: The Art of Argument in the Gorgias and Phaedrus (Cambridge University Press, 2017), explores Plato’s views on the role and purpose of argument in civic life. You can read an interview with him about it here. In addition to his work on Plato, he has interests in questions of philosophical method, the history and practice of rhetoric, Ancient Greek and Roman literature, and the history of ethics (especially virtue ethics). He also has a strong interest in philosophy as a way of life. He is co-editing a special issue for Metaphilosophy…
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Deadline Day for Drafts Exchange and Mellon Philosophy as a Way of Life Project Applications
Today is the deadline for letters of intent for the Mellon Philosophy as a Way of Life Project, a new initiative to help scholars effectively teach philosophy as a way of life! If you teach philosophy at a post-secondary institution and are interested at all, please check out philife.nd.edu and consider submitting a letter of intent. Today is also the deadline for the second round of ancient philosophy paper draft exchanges, so take your chance and sign up now.
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Join the Mellon Philosophy as a Way of Life Project! (UPDATED Deadline January 15)
I am very excited to announce the Mellon Philosophy as a Way of Life Project, a new initiative to help scholars effectively teach philosophy as a way of life! I am delighted to be serving as one of the Lead Faculty Advisors. If you teach philosophy at a post-secondary institution and are interested at all, please check out our website: philife.nd.edu and consider submitting a letter of intent. We are less than a week away from the January 15 deadline for applying for the first cohort. We are putting together a network of interested scholars to share resources and to participate in a week-long workshop we will be running at Notre Dame for…
