In Alexander Nehamas’s philosophical work he has attempted to understand the ways in which a philosopher’s writings create a life and a model for living. Nehamas’s foremost concern is therefore not life or literature per se but what he calls, in the title of his first book, “life as literature.” So, to steer by his own lights, it is through his writings that a philosophical biography of Nehamas needs to proceed.
Perhaps it is misleading to say the figures who interest Nehamas are simply “philosophers,” for Nehamas has often occupied himself with figures — like Montaigne and Foucault — who are often thought to lie outside the philosophical tradition.
[full article: UPI]
Prepared by The Harvard Review of Philosophy and edited by Phin Upham
Phin Upham has a PhD in Applied Economics from the Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania). Phin us a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He can be reached at phin@phinupham.com
