Single Idea 20867

[catalogued under 1. Philosophy / D. Nature of Philosophy / 5. Aims of Philosophy / a. Philosophy as worldly]

Full Idea

It is not the man who listens eagerly and memorises what philosophers say who is prepared for philosophising, but the man who is prepared to carry into action what is pronounced in philosophy and to live by it.

Gist of Idea

True philosophising is not memorising ideas, but living by them

Source

report of Stoic school (fragments/reports [c.200 BCE]) by John Stobaeus - Anthology 2.11k

Book Reference

'The Stoics Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B/Gerson,L.P. [Hackett 2008], p.145


A Reaction

Hence stoicism was seen more as a way of life, and less as theorising. I aim to combine the two. There is a way of life which centres on theorising about life while living it. A life without enquiry is not worth living.