The Conscious Life of a Philosopher

Plato is an advocate of what hanna arent would eventually call the contemplative life. He talks about a world of ideas, knowledge of these higher forms that can be arrived at introspectively by philosophers thinking about things. socrates and aristotle both thought that the life of a philosopher should be nothing like locking yourself away in some insular world. These thinkers were worried that if they had too many conversations with normal everyday thinking they might be at least less capable of making some sort of huge break through.