Pierre Hadot, Albert Camus and the orphic view of nature
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Pierre Hadot, Albert Camus and the orphic view of nature Matthew Sharpe1 Accepted: 20 October 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Albert Camus repeatedly denied the label “existentialist,” and pointed to his formative experiences of natural beauty and his early introduction to classical Greek thought and culture as determinative of his philosophy. Pierre Hadot, famous for his post-1970 work on philosophy as a way of life in classical antiquity, continued throughout his life to work on the history of Western conceptions of nature. In Le voile d’Isis, Hadot excavated a second strain of Western attitudes towards nature, alongside the instrumental or “Promethean” approach dominant in modernity: this is that of the contemplative Orphic perspective, closely tied in antiquity to philosophical regimens of spiritual exercises to transform philosophers’ ways of seeing. This paper will argue that Camus and Hadot should be read as two twentieth century “Orphic” figures in this sense, in a way that at once singles them out against almost all other European contemporaries, as well as speaking to our ecological concerns today. Yet the only comparative piece on the two thinkers to date, by Matthew Lamb, misses this shared contemplative, Orphic core to their positions. This paper aims to redress this shortcoming in the reception of the two figures. Keywords Albert Camus · Pierre Hadot · Orphic view of nature · Philosophy as a way of life · Contemplation · Natural beauty “THE STORY of Orpheus, which though so well known has not yet been in all points perfectly well interpreted, seems meant for a representation of universal Philosophy. For Orpheus himself,—a man admirable and truly divine, who being master of all harmony subdued and drew all things after him by sweet and gentle measures,—may pass by an easy metaphor for philosophy personified. For as the works of wisdom surpass in dignity and power the works of strength, so the labours of Orpheus surpass the labours of Hercules.” Francis Bacon, “Orpheus”, Wisdom of the Ancients
* Matthew Sharpe [email protected] 1
Deakin University, Waurn Ponds, Australia
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M. Sharpe
1 Introduction In the interviews collected in Philosophie comme manière de vivre,1 philologist and philosopher Pierre Hadot reflects on an abortive intellectual exchange earlier in his life. In 1945–1946, the young Hadot had attended several conferences at which the famed philosophe-litterateur Albert Camus spoke.2 “It is very interesting,” Hadot comments: “I wrote many articles, notably a fairly lengthy review of L’Homme révolté by Albert Camus, who sent me a letter on this occasion that I have unfortunately lost…”3 Readers of the two figures might well lament this loss, and that Hadot did not subsequently return to Camus’ thought or continue the dialogue. For the close of L’Homme révolté, the 1951 work Hadot reviewed, features Camus arguing for a wholesale return to a classical philosophical perspective, in a fashion quite singular at this time—and which would soon enough attrac
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