Philosophy as a way of life

This spiritual "death to the body" was carried out by means of philosophy, for according to Plato, philosophy is nothing but training for death: Shall we not say that purification occurs . . . when man separates the soul as much as possible from the body, and accustoms it to gather itself together from every part of the body and concentrate itself until it is completely independent, and to have its dwelling, so far as it can, both now and in the future, alone and by itself, freed from the shackles of the body?17

We shall have occasion later on to return to the precise meaning of this philosophical exercise. For the moment, suffice it to say that when Plato wants to describe the philosophical life, he does so by means of the image of the soul's gathering itself together, and its subsequent flight into the infinity of the heavens. This flight allows the soul to look down from above at human affairs, in the truest sense of the phrase.

As for the philosopher himself, Plato describes him as follows in the Theaetetlls:

In fact, it is only his body that lives and has its residence in the state; his soul, however, holds all this to be puny and meaningless, and con1 cmp1 uously wanders all over the place, "under the earth," as Pindar N11y11, 11 ml mt•u11urinic whatever is on its surface, and "above the heavens,"

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observing the stars, and in general thoroughly investigating the nature of everything that is, but without lowering itself to the level of any of the objects in its vicinity .1a

In the Republic, Plato expresses the view that greatness of soul consists in precisely such an attitude: "For smallness is particularly contrary to the soul which always strives after the complete and perfect, both divine and human." 19 Such a soul, capable of observing the totality of space and time, has no fear even of death.

Here it might not be inappropriate to try to formulate more precisely two concepts with which we have been dealing: on the one hand, the concept of philosophy as a means of achieving spiritual death, and, on the other, the idea of philosophy as the ascent of the soul into the celestial heights. Plato developed these ideas and concepts in a specifically Platonic direction, but in and of themselves they arc not specifically Platonic. Rather, they are to be found in all the ancient philosophical schools, be they Epicurean, Stoic, or Cynic.

In other words, in all schools - with the exception of Skepticism -

philosophy was held to be an exercise consisting in learning to regard both society and the individuals who comprise it from the point of view of universality. This was accomplished partly with the help of a philosophical theory of nature, but above all through moral and existential exercises. The goal of such exercises was to help people free themselves from the desires and passions which troubled and harassed them. These needs and desires, it was thought, were imposed on the individual by social conventions and the needs of the body. The goal of philosophy was to eliminate them, so that the individual might come to see things as nature herself sees them, and consequently desire nothing other than that which is natural. If we leave aside for the moment terminological and conceptual differences, we can say that, within each school, philosophy signified the attempt to raise up mankind from individuality and particularity to universality and objectivity. For example, philosophical death for the Platonists consisted in getting rid of one's passions, in order to attain to the autonomy of thought. For the Stoics, philosophical death consisted in putting oneself in accord with universal reason, the all-embracing Logos, both interior and exterior.

Thus, in each philosophical school we encounter one and the same conception of philosophy. Similarly, in each philosophical school we find the same conception of the the cosmic flight and the view from above as the philosophical way par excellence of looking at things. In particular, Platonists, Stoics, and Epicureans all discovered, in addition to their theoretical physics, a practical physics, which was conceived of as an exercise in which the imagination speeds through the infinite v11stnesscs of the univc1·sc. EN11ecinlly for t.hc Plntonists nnd t he StoicN, t he icrntl of thi11 liwd 11hysic11 of the univerNc

The View from Above

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was to attain to greatness of soul, and in all schools its function was to teach people to despise human affairs and to achieve inner peace.

The exercise of practical physics is already hinted at in Plato's Timaeus,20