PHILOSOPHY AS A PRACTICE OF A WISE LIFE
PHILOSOPHY AS A PRACTICE OF A WISE LIFE

Summary/Abstract: The formation of philosophy as a form of consciousness of its own kind was accompanied by the belief that its creators were some strange people, belonging to a special strain, amiss (atopos), just as their reality in the world of people (atopia). Philosophers have affirmed these qualificatives throughout thehistory of philosophy.They were building their identity through a pure spiritual aspiration to uncover the highest principles of everything that was happening, with an open critical opinion of the existing social reality and a particular way of living.Their existence in the world, characterized by a constant effort to rise above the sphere of everyday life, is a process of a tense state of mind between the set paradigm of a wise life and the attempt to achieve it. This tension manifests itself in the discursive plane through the abstract - speculative reflection about the essential questions of the world and man, and in the existential plane through the constant need to step out of the world of trivial things.Ancient philosophical experience shows that this stepping out entailed contemplation on which not only the most profound theorizing but also the process of self-change was based, through gaining independence from external goods (autarchy) and releasing oneself from passion (ataraxia), which should have ultimately led to the realization of the highest social good.In addition to the contribution of ancient philosophy to building the spiritual and moral integrity of philosophers, this paper actualizes another practical role of philosophy in improving life that has stemmed from the imbalance status of a modern-age individual who is increasingly in need of counseling support from practitioner philosophers for the purpose of stimulating the individual in self-perceiving of problems, establishing a secure thinking base and finding solutions to specific life and professional issues.

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