Philosophy gains interest when cast as a lived biography
Evidence
Inspired both by Merleau-Ponty’s mottos about lived ideas and by Iris Murdoch’s ‘inhabited philosophy’, and triggered by my own eerie feelings on retracing my steps, I want to explore the story of existentialism and phenomenology in a way that combines the philosophical and the biographical. This is a mixture many of them were drawn to (although one repudiated it: Heidegger), and this too has fed my desire to try the same. I think philosophy becomes more interesting when it is cast into the form of a life. Likewise, I think personal experience is more interesting when thought about philosophically. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 105
Inspired both by Merleau-Ponty’s mottos about lived ideas and by Iris Murdoch’s ‘inhabited philosophy’, and triggered by my own eerie feelings on retracing my steps, I want to explore the story of existentialism and phenomenology in a way that combines the philosophical and the biographical. This is a mixture many of them were drawn to (although one repudiated it: Heidegger), and this too has fed my desire to try the same. I think philosophy becomes more interesting when it is cast into the form of a life. Likewise, I think personal experience is more interesting when thought about philosophically. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 105
Categorization
- XREF: This methodological stance echoes Montaigne’s essayistic self-examination and the tradition of philosophy as ‘exercises’ in Foucault’s care of the self. — connects to: Existentialism holds that philosophy grows out of concrete lived experience — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 54; Phenomenology rediscovers philosophy by describing lived things rather than questioning reality — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 12; Philosophies are inhabited and lived in rather than merely followed as rules — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 104 (+6 more)
- DEFINE: Explains the book’s method: philosophical biography keyed to existentialists’ own ‘lived idea’ commitments.
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 105
Broader Connections
- Merleau-Ponty’s embodied liveliness reflected his view that philosophy and life are one
#exemplifies(0.85) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 748 - Existentialism holds that philosophy grows out of concrete lived experience
#corroborates(0.82) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 54 - Philosophies are inhabited and lived in rather than merely followed as rules
#expands(0.80) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 104 - Beauvoir’s autobiography records lived experience more vividly than her philosophical works do
#exemplifies(0.78) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 1030 - Phenomenology rediscovers philosophy by describing lived things rather than questioning reality
#corroborates(0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 12 - A philosophy becomes historical and living only through contact with the simple
#expands(0.75) - A person’s real philosophy is expressed in action, not declared belief
#expands(0.75) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1180 - Philosophy becomes historically true by diffusing into the popular mentality.
#expands(0.72) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1248