Writing a philosophical biography could involve asking three related questions: 1. How did this philosopher live? 2. What did he believe (in particular, about human flourishing)? And 3. Did he live according to his beliefs?
Were we to undertake writing such a book, what might we find? That he lived well or poorly; that he believed the right or the wrong sorts of things; and that he failed to or succeeded in living with integrity.
In Examined Lives: From Socrates to Nietzsche (forthcoming), Jim Miller has sought to write such a book. Sarah Bakewell, who authored a fine book of her own on Montaigne, wrote a favorable review of Examined Lives in this past week‘s NYT. I’m hoping she’s right.
Update: Another favorable (and quite eloquent) review of Miller’s book.
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 
One response to “Philosophical biography”
[…] Philosophical biography is the study of how well a philosopher’s ideas are realized in his life, in the core of his being, in his thoughts, habits, and actions. It would be a mistake to suppose that ideas are theoretical objects that then get applied to reality. That would be to suppose that ideas exist in one realm, reality exists in another, and the first fits, doesn’t fit, or bears no relation to the second. To say instead that ideas are “realized in one’s life” is to mean that ideas only take on substance and meaning insofar as that they are lived. […]