Giovanni Sette's Reviews > Che cos'è la filosofia antica?

Very convincing regarding the relationship between philosophical practice and philosophical discourse; not so much when it comes to the (rare) references to the Pre-Socratics. While there are many self-evident links between VS fragments and the general developments of classic and hellenistic greek philosophy, Hadot seems to willingly ignore them, and in doing so he misses an hefty chance to enrich his take on the matter. This would be justified, says H., considering the lack of complete writings from the Pre-Socratics: nevertheless, not only this should engage a compelling exegetic challenge (not the opposite), but Hadot himself does not hesitate to use categories derived from non other the the Presocratics – for example when motivating epicurean's lack of fear of death with evidence that «being can not shift into not-being», clearly referring to Parmenides, who is not mentioned in any way. Still, an important piece of literature regarding ancient philosophy, even if it feels maybe a little too wordy and less concise than H.'s masterpiece ‘Spiritual Exercises and Ancient Philosophy’.