Don't Forget to Live: Goethe and the Tradition of Spiritual Exercises
“In Don’t Forget to Live, the final book penned before his death in 2010, renowned French philosopher Pierre Hadot focuses our attention on Goethe and the long tradition of spiritual exercises. As Hadot explains, the term “spiritual exercise” has nothing to do with religion as we might assume. Instead, spiritual exercises are acts of the intellect, imagination, or will that are characterized by their purpose. Thanks to these exercises, a person strives to transform how they see the world, the self, and the relationship between the two. The exercises do not work to inform, but to form. Hadot begins his remarkable study of Goethe with the spiritual exercise of concentrating on the present moment. This exercise was dear to Goethe and allows us to experience each moment intensely without being distracted by the weight of the past or the mirage of the future. Hadot then explores another exercise, the view from above, in which we actively take a distance from things so as to help us see them in perspective. He then turns our attention to Goethe’s poem “Urworte” in which the focus is on hope, a figure who represents a fundamental attitude we should cultivate. Through Hadot’s masterful treatment of these three exercises we clearly grasp Goethe’s deep love for life despite its pains and fears, and this deep love serves as a powerful reminder for us to live as well.”
Pierre Hadot (21 February 1922 – 24 April 2010) was a French philosopher and historian of philosophy specializing in ancient philosophy, particularly Neoplatonism, Epicureanism and Stoicism.. . .Hadot shows that the key to understanding the original philosophical impulse is to be found in Socrates. What characterizes Socratic therapy above all is the importance given to living contact between human beings.Hadot’s recurring theme is that philosophy in Antiquity was characterized by a series of spiritual exercises intended to transform the perception, and therefore the being, of those who practice it; that philosophy is best pursued in real conversation and not through written texts and lectures; and that philosophy, as it is taught in universities today, is for the most part a distortion of its original, therapeutic impulse. He brings these concerns together in What Is Ancient Philosophy?, which has been critically reviewed. In 1994 Hadot published an article entitled “There Are Nowadays Professors of Philosophy, but not Philosophers”, in it Hadot shows us that the American philosopher, Henry David Thoreau, via his book Walden, exemplifies the ‘true philosopher’, one who lives his philosophy by living simply in natural surroundings.Much of what Hadot wrote about in his most popular books deals with the personal transformation experienced by people who ‘lived philosophy’ rather than those who studied philosophy as an academic endeavor. Hadot didn’t ‘discover’ the practice and benefits of ‘spiritual exercises’ but he ‘rediscovered’ it and brought it back into modern day philosophical conversation much like previous philosophers did in the past, namely, Erasmus, Montaigne, Descartes, Kant, Emerson, Marx, Nietzsche, William James, Wittgenstein, Jaspers, and Rilke.
Source: http://disquietreservations.blogspot.com/2025/06/dont-forget-to-live-goethe-and.html
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