ABSTRACT
The tradition of philosophy known as “the art of living” includes persistent inquiry into what it means to be human, juxtaposed with reflection on what many have called the human condition. The tradition features a practical focus on methods of self-improvement. The latter term may conjure today’s racks of self-help books available online and at the local bookstore – and there are indeed family resemblances between the best of these works and the ancient line of philosophizing I take up here. However, this longstanding tradition has a deeply educational and public aspect. It connotes intellectual, moral and aesthetic self-transformation fused in the most cosmopolitan-minded of its iterations with a maturing sense of social responsibility.
