"Idonea dicere vitae". Johann Joachim Spalding et la philosophie comme mode de vie dans les Lumières allemandes tardives

It is well known that Johann Joachim Spalding (1714-1804) was an eminent representative of the German Enlightenment, who provided crucial contributions to ethics and religion. What has hitherto been overlooked is how he is a typical representative of what in scholarship is currently identified as “Philosophy as a Way of Life” (PWL). This expression designates a very specific way of conceiving of philosophy in the footsteps of the Ancients, which has now achieved the status of a meta-philosophical and historiographic paradigm following the works of Pierre Hadot and Michel Foucault. According to this view, philosophy is a practical and (trans)formative discipline aimed at changing one’s life, rather than augmenting one’s knowledge, and this cannot be realized but through continuous practice and the combination of very specific spiritual exercises. This article aims to show that Spalding grasped, and endorsed, all this while reading Greek, but mostly Roman texts – either directly or indirectly; as a consequence, he vindicated the transformative, rather than informative, power of philosophy, while also suggesting to his readers some typical exercises such as learning how to die and concentration on the present moment.