New Perspective on Late Antique Philosophy: Augustine’s Understanding and Application of Christian Psychagogy
Research outcomes
Basic information of the research project
- Research Project Number: 21K00084
- Research Period: FY 2021–2023
- Research Area: History of Thought
- Research Institution: Tokyo Gakugei University
- Principal Investigator: Dr. Naoki Kamimura, Tokyo Gakugei University
Outline of Research
This study proposes a new perspective on ancient philosophical activity by analysing the texts of Augustine of Hippo (354-430), the main object of research of the historian of philosophy Pierre Hadot. Hadot is said to have revolutionised the study of the history of ancient philosophy with his research on ‘spiritual exercises’, and it was under Hadot’s influence that Michel Foucault focused on the genealogy of ‘care of the soul’, which led to the development of groundbreaking research on classical thought. The fatal problem, however, is that Hadot has been suspected of committing anachronisms in the history of philosophy in his study of ‘disciplines’. Indeed, Hadot’s claim that ‘spiritual exercises’ transform the ‘way of life’ of the practising subject commits the methodological fallacy of reading the inner individual into the modern concept of ‘self’. This study, therefore, dissolves this anachronism and considers the system that underlies the ‘way of life’ of the practical wisdom-seeking subject.