Philosophy as a Way of Life: History, Dimensions, Directions (Re-inventing Philosophy as a Way of Life)

In this first ever introduction to philosophy as a way of life in the Western tradition, Matthew Sharpe and Michael Ure take us through the history of the idea from Socrates and Plato, via the medievals, Renaissance and Enlightenment thinkers, to Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, Foucault and Hadot. They examine the kinds of practical exercises each thinker recommended to transform their philosophy into manners of living. Philosophy as a Way of Life also examines the recent resurgence of thinking about philosophy as a practical, lived reality and why this ancient tradition still has so much relevance and power in the contemporary world.

Matthew Sharpe is Professor and Head of Philosophy at the Australian Catholic University, Australia.

Michael Ure is Senior Lecturer in Politics in the School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University, Australia. He is author of Nietzsche's Therapy: Self-Cultivation in the Middle Works (2008) and Nietzsche's 'The Gay Science' (2018) and co-editor of The Politics of Compassion (2014)

Keith Ansell Pearson holds a Personal Chair in Philosophy at the University of Warwick, UK. He is the author of acclaimed monographs on Nietzsche and Bergson and has published a number of essays on Guyau's ethics.

Daniel Conway is Professor and Head of Philosophy and Humanities at Texas A&M University, USA, having previously held faculty appointments at Pennsylvania State University, Stanford and Harvard.