E-book: A Short Guide to the Inner Citadel
An accessible introduction to one of Pierre Hadot's classics on Stoicism
Dear Reader,
Here is the fifth installment of my ongoing series of free e-books based on essays that have appeared either here at Figs in Winter or at one of my previous blogs.
This new collection presents an in-depth yet accessible commentary on one of the classics of modern Stoicism: Pierre Hadot’s The Inner Citadel, first published in English in 1998.
Hadot’s book is ostensively about Marcus Aurelius, the emperor-philosopher, but in fact about half of it concerns the philosophy of Epictetus, the Stoic teacher that so greatly influenced Marcus.
Enjoy, and remember, Philosophia longa, vita brevis!
~Massimo Pigliucci
That was interesting, Massimo, thank you. And it reminds that I have to actually start reading the meditations (hard work as my copy is in Italian).
In your booklet, you write the following about Hadot's three categories.:
"(a) Things that are an integral part of living according to nature (...)
(b) Things that in themselves are morally neutral, neither good nor bad, but that — if possessed — allow us to better practice virtue. They include health and wealth, both of which facilitate our goal of helping other human beings. These things do not have an absolute value, as their value is ranked according to how much they facilitate moral living.
(c) Things that have no value in themselves, but can be exchanged for some good, and are therefore indirectly useful to virtue. "
You then ask for the readers to given an example of the latter.
Shouldn't wealth be in category (c) rather than (b)? I mean, we help others through our efforts for which we need to be healthy. We also help others materially which we do by exchanging our savings for what they need (if you give away cash, that would be wealth under (b), I suppose). Under (b), should we also think of knowledge (I'm not thinking of wisdom but more of know-how)? There is no virtue by itself in knowing how the world works, but we can be a more useful fellow-citizen if our understanding of the world is better.
Thank you Massimo.