Pursuits of Wisdom: Six Ways of Life in Ancient Philosophy from Socrates to Plotinus. John M. Cooper. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012. Pursuits of Wisdom examines six widely diverging individual ethical philosophies in the continuous tradition from Socrates to Plotinus. Each philosophy is a study of what constitutes a good or bad moral character as articulated by Socrates, Aristotle, the Stoics, the Epicureans, the Skeptics, and the Platonists. Philosophy for these thinkers was seen as a way of life guided by a completely integrated single body of knowledge. Following in the footsteps of Pierre Hadot, who argued that philosophy was a transformation in the way one lived, Cooper’s book shows how these six philosophies were understood, practiced, and lived in the ancient world.
I tend to side with the poets... Lord, what fools we mortals be.