Harvard University Press Blog

Remembering Pierre Hadot - Part II

Today we conclude our two-part remembrance of the French philosopher Pierre Hadot, who died last week at age 88. Yesterday, Hadot's friend and former student Michael Chase gave an account of the various turns in Hadot's intellectual life; today, he shares some personal recollections of a figure whose plainspokenness and accessibility belied the extraordinary sophistication of his mind and work.

Those of you wondering where to look for a good entry point to Hadot's work might start with What Is Ancient Philosophy?, Chase's translation of Hadot's 1995 book Qu'est-ce que la philosophie antique?, in which Hadot articulated most fully his view on "philosophy as a way of life."

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Pierre Hadot - Part II

By Michael Chase

Having won a grant from the Canadian government to pursue my doctoral studies in Neoplatonism anywhere in the world, I followed an old teacher's advice and contacted the author of the book on the subject that I most admired: Porphyre et Victorinus. I first met Pierre Hadot at a conference at Loches, France, in the summer of 1987, where he gave a memorable lecture on “The Sage and the World.”¹ He was kind enough to read and comment on the M.A. thesis I had written on Porphyry, and while I could not officially enroll under his direction for my PhD, since the Collège de France was not a degree-granting institution, I did enroll under his successor at the École pratique des hautes études, Philippe Hoffmann. After attending his lectures at the Collège for a couple of years, I persuaded him to allow me to translate some of his works into English, and this marked the beginning of a close friendship between Pierre and Ilsetraut Hadot and my wife Isabel and myself. As I continued my studies, he continued help to me out with advice, books, and articles, and when times got rough, with a few hundred francs from his own pocket as well.

What I remember most about Pierre Hadot was his simplicity. Although he had reached the highest echelons of the hierarchical French academic scheme, he never let it go to his head: in his lectures he spoke clearly, without excess rhetorical flourish, and if he wrote on the blackboard he did so with complete grace and relaxation, and often with that self-deprecating laugh that was so characteristic of him. On one occasion, he invited Isabel and me to lunch, along with half a dozen others; we were to meet at his office at the Collège de France. We all showed up, and Hadot began to lead the whole bunch of us off to the restaurant. In the hallway, however, he came across a lost-looking young couple, obviously foreigners, and asked them if he could help them. They were looking for the cafeteria, they told him timidly, and Pierre Hadot, instead of merely giving them directions, insisted on accompanying this unknown couple all the way to the cafeteria, leaving his “invited” guests to twiddle their thumbs. Each individual, known or unknown, deserved respect and courtesy in the view of Pierre Hadot. Yet he also spent a good deal of his life as an administrator, particularly at the EPHE, where he showed himself to be a tough and uncompromising negotiator, especially when questions of principle were at stake.

Remembering Pierre Hadot - Part I

It was with sadness that we learned of the passing of Pierre Hadot, one of France's most extraordinary intellectual figures and a many-time HUP author. There have been obituaries in the popular press, but in the service of furthering this memory and elaborating our understanding, we asked Hadot's one-time student and long-time collaborator Michael Chase, currently of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris, to provide us with a more in-depth look at Hadot's remarkable intellectual trajectory. Below please find Part I, in which Chase details that trajectory, from Hadot's early interest in philology and mysticism to his later engagement with Marcus Aurelius and the idea of "spiritual exercise." Tomorrow we'll publish Part II, in which Chase shares his memories of a man who practiced what he preached, a man who "like Plotinus ... was always available to himself, but above all to others."

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Pierre Hadot - Part I

By Michael Chase

Pierre Hadot, emeritus Professor at the Collège de France and Director of Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Etudes, died on the night of April 24-25 at the age of 88.

Born in Paris in 1922, Hadot was raised at Reims, where he received a strict Catholic education, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1944. But he soon became disenchanted with the Church, particularly after the conservative encyclical Humani Generis of August 12, 1950, and he left it in 1952 (Eros also played a role in this decision: Hadot married his first wife in 1953).

As a Researcher at the CNRS (National Center of Scientific Research), Hadot was now free to devote himself to scholarship. He began with Latin Patristics, editing Ambrose of Milan and Marius Victorinus. This was the period, from the late 1950s to the 1960s, when, under the guidance of such experts as the Jesuit Paul Henry, he learned the strict discipline of philology, or the critical study and editing of ancient manuscripts, an approach that was to continue to exert a formative influence on his thought for the rest of his life. Also during this period, Hadot's deep interest in mysticism led him to study Plotinus, and, surprisingly enough, Wittgenstein, whose comments on “das Mystische” (Tractatus 6.522) led Hadot to study the Tractatus and the Philosophical Investigations and publish articles on them, thus becoming one of the first people in France to draw attention to Wittgenstein.¹ Hadot wrote Plotinus or the Simplicity of Vision² in a month-long burst of inspiration in 1963, a lucid, sincere work that is still one of the best introductions to Plotinus. Hadot would continue to translate and comment upon Plotinus throughout the rest of his life, founding in particular the series Les Ecrits de Plotin³, a series, still in progress, that provides translations with extensive introductions and commentaries to all the treatises of Plotinus' Enneads, in chronological order. On a personal level, however, Hadot gradually became detached from Plotinus' thought, feeling that Plotinian mysticism was too otherworldly and contemptuous of the body to be adequate for today's needs. As he tells the story, when he emerged from the month-long seclusion he had imposed upon himself to write Plotinus or The Simplicity of Vision, he went to the corner bakery, and “seeing the ordinary folks all around me in the bakery, I [...] had the impression of having lived a month in another world, completely foreign to our world, and worse than this—totally unreal and even unlivable.”⁴

Doing Philosophy-Poetry

Paul Franks says of Sanford Budick’s new book, Kant and Milton: “Many readers will share my first response to the title: how much is there to say about Kant and Milton? Such readers will also share my subsequent astonishment: I am now convinced that Milton was of central importance to Kant’s philosophy, and that Kant offers significant insight into Milton’s poetry.”

We asked Budick, Professor of English at The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, how he came to write on these two thinkers who might seem at first glance to have few concerns in common. Here’s his reconstruction of his process of discovery. 

Can we be aware of the moment when the plying of a familiar route turns into a voyage of discovery? If nothing else, I think we can be conscious of the elements of mystery that beckon toward uncharted expanses.

When I began writing this book, I had already spent a good part of my intellectual life thinking and writing about Milton, especially the Milton who is the great modern poet of the sublime. For a long time, too, I had been brooding over the moral philosophy of Kant, especially the Kant who is the great philosopher of the sublime. But I had not thought it possible to put Kant and Milton directly together. 

Nonetheless, it was clear that Kant early achieved a working familiarity with Milton's poetry of the sublime. For example, in his first treatise on the sublime (1764), he gave Milton pride of exemplifying place. Twenty-six years later, in the "Analytic of the Sublime" of the third Critique, Kant described how, in the mind's experience of the sublime, "the element of genius" in one genius is "followed by another genius—one whom it arouses to a sense of his own originality."

It now seemed necessary to wonder: Could it be that a formative encounter between Kant and Milton, the two modern geniuses of the sublime, had aroused Kant to his own originality? Could it be that Kant's continuing, detailed contemplation of Milton's poetry altered his way of engaging in moral philosophy?

Murty family donates $5.2 million to establish library of Indian classical literature

Exciting news - we're ready to announce the establishment, via an extraordinary gift from the Murty family of Bangalore, of a new series dedicated to making the literary heritage of India available to English-language readers. The series is called the Murty Classical Library of India — first volumes to be be published in 2013. The text of the press release follows.

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HARVARD ANNOUNCES NEW MURTY CLASSICAL LIBRARY OF INDIA SERIES

Cambridge, MA — Harvard University and Harvard University Press (HUP) announced today that the Murty family of Bangalore, India, has established a new publication series, the Murty Classical Library of India, with a generous gift of $5.2 million. The dual-language series aims both to serve the needs of the general reading public and to enhance scholarship in the field.

Harvard Provost Steven E. Hyman noted that the Murty family gift would enable HUP to present the literary cultures of India to a global readership in an unprecedented manner. “The Murty Classical Library of India will make the classical heritage of India accessible worldwide for generations to come,” said Hyman. “We are truly grateful to the Murty family for their vision and leadership in making this historic initiative a reality.”

The Murty family’s endowed series aims to bring the classical literature of India, much of which remains locked in its original language, to a global audience, making many works available for the first time in English and showcasing the contributions of Indian literature to world civilization. Narayana Murty said of the new series, “I am happy that Harvard University Press is anchoring this publishing project.” His wife, Sudha, agreed. “We are happy to participate in this exciting project of bringing the rich literary heritage of India to far corners of the world.”

Under the direction of General Editor Sheldon Pollock, William B. Ransford Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Studies at Columbia University, and aided by an international editorial board composed of distinguished scholars, translators will provide contemporary English versions of works originally composed in Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Persian, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, and other Indian languages.

Each volume will present the English translation with the original text in the appropriate Indic script on the facing page. The books will be supplemented by scholarly introductions, expert commentary, and textual notes, all with the goal of establishing Murty Classical Library volumes as the most authoritative editions available.

The Murty family’s vision has already begun to impress notable scholars, such as Thomas W. Lamont University Professor and professor of economics and philosophy at Harvard University, Amartya Sen, who expressed his appreciation for the initiative. “There are few intellectual gaps in the world that are as glaring as the abysmal ignorance of Indian classics in the Western world. It is wonderful that the Murty Classical Library of India is taking up the challenge of filling this gap, through a new commitment of the Harvard University Press, backed by the discerning enthusiasm of the Murty family, and the excellent leadership of Sheldon Pollock—an outstanding Sanskritist and classical scholar. This will be a big contribution to advancing global understanding that is so much needed in the world today.”

HUP plans to make the works available in both print and digital formats. The first volumes are scheduled for publication in fall 2013. An Indian edition is being planned.

Founded in 1913, Harvard University Press is a major publisher of nonfiction, scholarly, and general interest books with offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, New York, and London.

Brand new HUP website!

Great news today - HUP has a brand new website! It's the result of many months of hard work on the part of our colleagues, so we congratulate them. In addition to the appealing design sense, new features include improved browsing and search capability, simpler ordering, and a new ease in discovering the many treasures of our backlist.

Here's what the front page looks like:

But the best way to get a taste is to browse yourself - just click here or point your browser to http://www.hup.harvard.edu.