Ilsetraut Hadot

Ilsetraut Hadot (French: [ado]; née Ludolff; 20 December 1928 – 13 April 2026) was a German-born French historian of philosophy who specialised in Stoicism, Neoplatonism, and more generally in ancient philosophy.

Ilsetraut Hadot was born in Berlin, Germany, on 20 December 1928.^[1]

In 1978, Hadot won the Victor Cousin prize of the Académie française for her work The problem of Alexandrian Neoplatonism. Hierocles and Simplicius. In 2015, she received the François-Millepierres prize by the Académie for her work Seneca. Spiritual Direction and Practice of Philosophy.^[2]

In 1966, she graduated the Dr. Phil. at the Free University of Berlin about Seneca and Spiritual Direction in Antiquity.^[3] She defended her State thesis in 1977, a Doctor of Arts at Paris-Sorbonne University (Paris IV).^[4]

She met Pierre Hadot during a symposium in Cologne in 1962 and they married in Berlin in 1966.^[5] He was also a specialist in ancient philosophy. Together, they wrote Learn to Philosophize in Antiquity, in 2004.^[6]

Hadot died on 13 April 2026, at the age of 97.^[7]

Hadot was a classical philologist and a specialist in ancient philosophy. She wrote about Seneca, the history of education in antiquity^[8] and Neoplatonism. Hadot edited, commentated and translated the commentary of Simplicius (a Neoplatonic philosopher) on the Enchiridion of Epictetus.

• Seneca und die Griechisch-Römische Tradition der Seelenleitung, Berlin, Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1969, 232p.
• (With Pierre Hadot) Apprendre à philosopher dans l'Antiquité : L'enseignement du « Manuel d'Épictète » et son commentaire néoplatonicien, ("Learn to Philosophize in Antiquity: the Lesson from Enchiridion of Epictetus and its Neoplatonician Commentary") Paris, Le Livre de Poche, 2004, 216 p. ISBN 9782253109358.
• Arts libéraux et philosophie dans la pensée antique : Contribution à l'histoire de l'éducation et de la culture dans l'Antiquité ("Liberal Arts and Philosophy in Ancient thought: Contribution at the history of education and culture in Antiquity"), Paris, Vrin, 2006, 576 p. ISBN 9782711618231.
• Le Néoplatonicien Simplicius à la lumière des recherches contemporaines : Un bilan critique (The Neoplatonician Simplicius in light of contemporary researches: a critical appraisal) (with two contributions of Philippe Vallat), Saint Augustin, Academia Verlag, 2014, 309 p. ISBN 9783896656391.
• Le Problème du néoplatonisme alexandrin : Hiéroclès et Simplicius (The Problem of alexandrian neoplatonism : Hierocles and Simplicius), Paris, Études augustiniennes, 1978, 243 p. ISBN 9782851210234.
• Sénèque. Direction spirituelle et pratique de la philosophie (Seneca. Spiritual Direction and practice of philosophy), Paris, Vrin, 2014, 456 p. ISBN 9782711625697
• Studies on the Neoplatonist Hierocles, Philadelphia, American philosophical society, 2004, 152 p. ISBN 0-87169-941-9
• Athenian and Alexandrian Neoplatonism and the Harmonization of Aristotle and Plato, Leiden, Boston, Brill, 2015, 188 p. ISBN 9789004280076

• Seneca, Consolations, Paris, Payot & Rivages, 1992, 140 p. ISBN 9782869305168, translated by Colette Lazam, preface by Ilsetraut Hadot.
• Simplicius, Commentaire sur les Catégories ("Commentary on the Categories"), Leyde, Brill, 1989, Philosophia Antiqua, 240 p. ISBN 9789004090156, translated under the direction of Ilsetraut Hadot.
• Simplicius, Commentaire sur le Manuel d'Épictète. Introduction & édition critique du texte grec par Ilsetraut Hadot ("Commentary on the Enchiridion of Epictetus. Introduction & critical edition of the Greek text by Ilsetraut Hadot"), Leyden, New-York, Cologne, Brill, 1996, 479p.
• Simplicius, Commentaire sur le Manuel d'Épictète. Chapitres I-XXIX ("Commentary on the Enchiridion of Epictetus. Chapters I-XXIX"), Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2001, 314 p. ISBN 9782251004938^[9]