THERE are periods in history when it feels as if almost everything is changing. The economic prosperity that one generation enjoyed is thrown into doubt for the next. There are dramatic shifts in the balance of power, as new political forces appear on the horizon, causing the old consensus to flounder. The daily lives of ordinary people are transformed by sudden progress in the sciences, and are astonishing and unsettling in equal measure. Such moments are commonly regarded warily. They precipitate moral panics, ideological backlashes and suspicion amongst neighbours.

They are also times in which some individuals are inspired to dig deep. These rare souls turn again to questions about what it is to be human, what it is to flourish, and out of their enquiries emerge profound insights. They sometimes forge a new philosophy of life that can sustain their fellows for centuries.

Much was up for grabs in the time of Socrates, Plato and their peers. It is no coincidence that philosophy, the love of wisdom, was born during this turbulent period of history – in which one war or other was usually being waged, and in which democracy was established in Athens and then fell.

The first philosophers who inquired into the nature of things were a ragbag of individuals. But they knew they were onto something substantial. That said, they would never have guessed that, first, their ideas would evolve into traditions of thought and practice that others would follow for a millennium. And then, after the arrival of Christianity, that we would still know them by name and ponder their perceptions to this day.

There is good reason to think that we are living through another era of change. The collapse of the banking system in 2008 has already gone down as seismic in economic history. By causing uncertainty and challenging consumerism, it is encouraging some to rethink their lives. Add to that the shift in the balance of power from the West to the East, the emergence of a plural society in which every day you can encounter people whose beliefs are different from your own, and the potentially devastating impact of climate change. Now, it can be argued, is a good time to think about what it’s all about. One way of doing so is to return to roots. So just what was ancient philosophy?

Well, for one thing, the ancient philosophers claimed as their own a kind of freedom of speech – parrhesia in Greek. This was a rare art then and now because it requires the kind of bravery not just to say anything, which anyone can do, but to pierce the clouds of self- and cultural delusion in the struggle to arrive at something that was both different and true; original and life-giving.

They also lived together, in communities. That too is easy to say and hard to do. They practised a way of life – the practice and the parrhesia being inseparable for them. Merely to talk about philosophy would be like buying a cookery book and never turning on the stove. If the proof of the pudding is in the eating, the proof of philosophy was in the living.

The philosophers also used to say that thought is therapy, and over the centuries they devised a range of different therapies, coupled to the different schools of thought – Peripatetics, Stoics, Cynics, Epicureans and others. From about the third century BCE , a citizen of Athens who had the leisure could search for a guru at whose feet to sit, and from whom to work out his or her own philosophy of life. Some were extreme, demanding that you own next-to-nothing, roll in hot sand, and live in a barrel. Others were more subtly difficult, demanding a complete reorientation of your view of things.

This philosophy-as-a-way-of-life perhaps should be tough. But if it is difficult solely because it has become technical or abstract, as academic philosophy is at risk of becoming today, then it has probably lost sight of its primary goal. The ancient philosophers saw it clearly. How can I live more fully, in ways more open, than the pervading cultural norms might allow. Their challenge. Our challenge.

ENDS

Mark Vernon will be teaching on the steps of St Paul’s on Thursday 18 November from 9am as part of the Idler Philosophy Free School. For more info, click here