Descartes and the Problem of Discontinuity in the History of Philosophy as an Art of Living

Abstract

Starting with an interrupted exchange of views between Pierre Hadot and Michel Foucault, Descartes’ thought can act as a strict test bed for any attempt at defining interruptions and continuity in the history of philosophical spiritual exercises from the ancient world to the modern age. This paper provides a new interpretation of the role that has been assumedly played by Descartes in the history of philosophical exercises, by introducing a quadripartite hermeneutic model to discover continuities and discontinuities between different theoretical positions.