Philosophy as Self-Fashioning: Alexander Nehamas's Art of Living

Abstract

To turn philosophy to the service of life—to become the "poet of one's life"—is the animating thought behind Alexander Nehamas's recent book, The Art of Living: Socratic Reflections from Plato to Foucault. The book's central aim is to argue that philosophy can be an activity, a way of life, as distinct from a body of scholarly doctrine. While it has become standard to insist that "philosophy is a theoretical discipline" [AL 1], producing claims about the nature of truth, beauty, causality, and so on, Nehamas draws on an ancient tradition under which practical activity is the core philosophical enterprise, and the true philosopher, like Socrates in the Apology, need not author compelling theories but must livethe life of a sage. His efforts to revive the ancient idea give rise to a conundrum, however. For he claims that his own book embodies the essentially practical type of philosophy, even though, to all appearances, it is standard theoretical fare: views are laid out, claims evaluated, and counterarguments refuted (often in extensive footnotes). How can we explain Nehamas's conviction that his book belongs on the side of the practical philosophers, when it seems so theoretical? 1 Where is the art of living in The Art of Living? [End Page 25]

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