I have been arguing that in order to recover a robust vision of philosophy as a way of life, we must re-join those aspects of philosophical living captured by the phrase “spiritual exercise” with those acts associated with the works of reason.

I have tried to make the case that reason and spiritual exercise are both required in the philosophical life, and that there is good textual and historical evidence for suggesting that ancient Greeks and Romans lived philosophically upon this dual basis.

I now want to advance the discussion by turning attention not only to the necessity of developing philosophical practices in addition to those of reason, but also toward developing an account of reason & knowledge adequate to larger notions of epistemology, metaphysics, & morals.

It is not enough, on my view, to simply join reason and exercise to the aims of therapy or the recuperation of the passions, however laudable those aims may be. They must also connect to the larger question of worldview, and this will require a transvaluation of reason itself.

In a phrase, I want to argue against a reduction of philosophy to reason and reason to instrumentality. What I mean by this is that reason itself has undergone substantial evolution over the course of history, and

just as I have set out to recover an ancient view of philosophy as a way of life rooted in askēsis, there is something of the ancient conception of reason that we would likewise do well to re-integrate today. Allow me to explain what I mean. https://knowledge-ecology.com/2020/09/13/revisioning-reason-and-spiritual-exercise/