1 László Nemes Urban philosophy as a way of life "I'm a lover of learning, and trees and open country won't teach me anything, whereas men in the town do." (Socrates) 1 There is now a growing interest in philosophy conceived as a way of life. The very concept of philosophy as a way of life is offered as an alternative to taking philosophy as a kind of scientific research. Many still understand philosophy as careful analyses of written works of dead or living philosophers, as well as the timeless (perennial) philosophical questions, with some scientific scrutiny. It is not always clear who should be regarded as a philosopher and exactly what kind of topics and methods should be regarded as philosophical. Yet, this approach seems to be fairly appropriate to delineate what counts as philosophical activity and who, therefore, should be treated as a philosopher. Philosophical work, the tradition of philosophy, and current topics are usually defined as research, conducted mainly within the academic environment, at universities and research institutes. Thus philosophy is the study of the writings of Aristotle, Descartes, Leibniz, Husserl, Heidegger, Carnap, Putnam, Rawls, Derrida, Deleuze and others, or topics like causation, free will, personal identity, responsibility, justice or the moral acceptibility of certain actions. However, philosophy has always had an alternative tradition too. Within this framework the philosopher does not primarily do research, but applies philosophical approaches and insights as an organic part of his/her life. It is not the same studying the works of say Spinoza or Sartre in the current academic setting (usually as a professor), and to hold classes on them at the university or speak about them at professional conferences, as it is to living your whole life according to the ideas developed by these philosophers (especially when we well know that both philosophers mentioned above strongly resisted becoming part of the academia). Actually, at the beginning of philosophy, we find an understanding of philosophy which suggests it is a practice of using certain life-managing principles instead of scientific analyses of other philosophers. So conceived, the ultimate task of a philosopher is the committed experimentation of the right conduct of life, trying out new principles and practices, which eventually will turn out to be the litmus test of how valuable the life of the philosopher as such, would be. 1 Plato: Phaidros, 230d