Spiritual Exercises as an Essential Part of Philosophical Life

In my paper I will argue for the thesis that spiritual exercises are an essential part of every philosophical life. My arguments are partly historical, partly conceptual in their nature. First, I show that philosophy at each stage of its history was accompanied by spiritual exercises. Next, I provide a definition of spiritual exercises as genuinely philo-sophical activity. Then I show that the philosophical life cannot be complete if it does not include spiritual exercises.