Life in a fragment. The psychagogic function of aforisms, maxims and sayings in philosophy as a way of life

Abstract

This article intends to show the use of aphorisms, maxims and sayings, and their psychagogic function —of guidance of the soul— throughout the History of Philosophy. To do that, we look at the way some of the main representatives of philosophy, understood as a way of life, have tried to condense their doctrines through aphoristic formulae, thus offering models to follow. Hence, the use of language becomes at the same time, instrument and goal of philosophical reflection understood as a way of existence and as a transformation of the ethos.