Today’s philosophical art of living? The significance of the Socratic-Nietzschean figure of an educator for university teaching

The aim of the article is to elaborate on the ancient philosophical notion of the art of living, placing it in the context of contemporary higher education in the humanities, construed not so much as a system of inculcating knowledge and propagating proper social attitudes but as a body of responsible educators encouraging independent thinking and the growth of moral sensitivity in students. The article focuses on the way the philosophical (mainly Socratic and Hellenistic) tradition is both continued and subverted in the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, himself the best paradigm of a creative disciple and educational master, capable of teaching not just the doctrines of wisdom but their practical application (phronesis) in the form of virtue (arête) and good living (eu dzen). The Nietzschean challenge to received knowledge and ways of conduct, his untimeliness, is then compared to Martha Nussbaum's project of utilizing philosophical tools for the purposes of implementing the principles of liberal education on the American ground.