Stoicism

One of the most frequently asked questions on my Facebook group for Stoicism, and elsewhere, is “Where is the best place to begin if I want to learn about Stoicism?” People often want recommendations for reading, in particular. So I’ve written this post to summarise the advice I normally give. The answer is actually quite simple. General Information At the risk of stating the obvious, you can do a lot worse than start by looking at the excellent Reading At a rough estimate, less than 1% of the many ancient writings on Stoicism actually survive today. We have no complete texts by the Greek founders of Stoicism, only fragments. Most of our knowledge of it comes from three Roman Stoics: Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. They lived in the first and second centuries AD, three hundreds years after Zeno of Citium had founded the Stoic school. By their time, the Athenian school of Stoicism no longer existed, and the Stoic school had no formal head (“scholarch”) to guide it. Nevertheless, we learn a great deal about Stoicism from their writings. We also learn a great deal about Stoicism from many comments made by non-Stoics, most notably the Roman philosopher and statesman Cicero, who was a Platonist himself but nevertheless very sympathetic toward Stoic ideas. We do also have about a book’s worth of fragmentary sayings and passages attributed to the early Greek Stoics, although these tend to be of slightly more interest to academics than to newcomers. The Meditations of Marc...

For those of us who live our lives in the real world, there is one branch of philosophy created just for us: Stoicism. It’s a philosophy designed to make us more resilient, happier, more virtuous and more wise–and as a result, better people, better parents and better professionals. Stoicism has been a common thread though some of history’s great leaders... “To be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it.” — Marcus Aurelius The question of why and how we are supposed to live has been contemplated for centuries. Absurdist Albert Camus wrote that life is like the Sisyphean task of […] Just over sixteen years ago, I bought Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations on Amazon. Amazon Prime didn’t exist then and to qualify for free shipping, I had to purchase a few other books at the same time. I was 19 years old. I didn’t know what Stoicism was. I didn’t know who Marcus Aurelius was (besides the […] Today it’s all about passion. Find your passion. Live passionately. Inspire the world with your passion. Passion, we tell ourselves, is the source of joy. The Stoics disagreed. In fact, they believed that passion(s) were what contributed to our misery. To the experts and gurus who assure us that passion—that unbridled enthusiasm, that willingness to pounce on […] “We suffer more from imagination than from reality.” — Seneca The 21st century has been described as “The Age of Anxiety,” “The United States of Stress,” “The Worl...

[ Editor’s Note: The following new entry replaces the Stoicism was one of the dominant philosophical systems of the Hellenistic period. The name derives from the porch ( stoa poikilê) in the Agora at Athens decorated with mural paintings, where the first generation of Stoic philosophers congregated and lectured. The school of thought founded there long outlived the physical Athenian porch and notably enjoyed continued popularity in the Roman period and beyond. This entry introduces the main doctrines and arguments of the three parts of Stoic philosophy – physics, logic, and ethics – emphasizing their interlocking structure. We also review the history of the school, the extant sources for Stoic doctrine, and the Stoics’ subsequent philosophical influence. 1. Preliminaries 1.1 The School and its History The Stoic school was founded around 300 BCE by Zeno of Citium, a voracious reader of Socratic dialogues, who also studied under the Cynic Crates and was influenced by the teachings of Plato’s Academy and the Megarian School. The Stoa competed with the school founded only a little before in Athens by Epicurus, and Stoic and Epicurean views are often compared and contrasted. Zeno was succeeded in the leadership of the Stoa first by Cleanthes of Assos and then by Chrysippus of Soli, who headed the school from around 230 until 206 BCE and was by all accounts its foremost theorist and systematizer. Following Chrysippus, the position of “scholarch” passed to his former students, th...

For those of us who live our lives in the real world, there is one branch of philosophy created just for us: Stoicism . It’s a philosophy designed to make us more resilient, happier, more virtuous and more wise–and as a result, better people, better parents and better professionals. Stoicism has been a common thread though some of history’s great leaders. It has been practiced by Kings, presidents, artists, writers and entrepreneurs. Marcus Aurelius. Frederick the Great, Montaigne, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Theodore Roosevelt, General James Mattis, —just to name a few—were all influenced by Stoic philosophy. So what is Stoicism? Who were the Stoics? How can you be a Stoic? We answer all your questions and more below. Click the links below to navigate to a specific section or scroll and read the entirety of the page: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • “Of all people only those are at leisure who make time for philosophy, only they truly live. Not satisfied to merely keep good watch over their own days, they annex every age to their own. All the harvest of the past is added to their store. ” — The private diaries of one of Rome’s greatest emperors, Except to the most avid seekers of wisdom, Stoicism is either unknown or misunderstood. To the average person, this vibrant, action-oriented, and paradigm-shifting way of living has become shorthand for “emotionlessness.” Given the fact that the mere mention of philosophy makes...

Author • Neil Durrant Adjunct fellow, Macquarie University Disclosure statement Neil Durrant does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Partners Languages • • English For an ancient philosophy, Stoicism is doing extremely well in 2023. Quotes from the Stoic philosopher and Roman emperor It is hard to imagine This is, in part, due to international authors such as Holiday has probably been most influential in taking Stoicism to a wide audience. His new book Read more: It is incredible to see such public interest in ancient philosophy. As a philosopher myself, this is inspiring. There are many academic philosophers trying to break through to a public audience. We want to demonstrate the usefulness of philosophy to everyday life. Most philosophers and philosophies fail to do this. Yet if the success of these authors is anything to go by, millions of people are interested in the Stoic way of life. But there are problems with Stoicism, both in its modern and ancient forms. I am not a fan. Here are my three reasons to resist Stoicism, and also an alternative approach to the some of the same problems it addresses I have borrowed from Friedrich Nietzsche, the great 19th century German philosopher. Passivity Holiday, Pigliucci and Delaney agree: one of the most important and useful aspects of Stoicism is what is called...

For those of us who live our lives in the real world, there is one branch of philosophy created just for us: Stoicism . It’s a philosophy designed to make us more resilient, happier, more virtuous and more wise–and as a result, better people, better parents and better professionals. Stoicism has been a common thread though some of history’s great leaders. It has been practiced by Kings, presidents, artists, writers and entrepreneurs. Marcus Aurelius. Frederick the Great, Montaigne, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Theodore Roosevelt, General James Mattis, —just to name a few—were all influenced by Stoic philosophy. So what is Stoicism? Who were the Stoics? How can you be a Stoic? We answer all your questions and more below. Click the links below to navigate to a specific section or scroll and read the entirety of the page: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • “Of all people only those are at leisure who make time for philosophy, only they truly live. Not satisfied to merely keep good watch over their own days, they annex every age to their own. All the harvest of the past is added to their store. ” — The private diaries of one of Rome’s greatest emperors, Except to the most avid seekers of wisdom, Stoicism is either unknown or misunderstood. To the average person, this vibrant, action-oriented, and paradigm-shifting way of living has become shorthand for “emotionlessness.” Given the fact that the mere mention of philosophy makes...

One of the most frequently asked questions on my Facebook group for Stoicism, and elsewhere, is “Where is the best place to begin if I want to learn about Stoicism?” People often want recommendations for reading, in particular. So I’ve written this post to summarise the advice I normally give. The answer is actually quite simple. General Information At the risk of stating the obvious, you can do a lot worse than start by looking at the excellent Reading At a rough estimate, less than 1% of the many ancient writings on Stoicism actually survive today. We have no complete texts by the Greek founders of Stoicism, only fragments. Most of our knowledge of it comes from three Roman Stoics: Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. They lived in the first and second centuries AD, three hundreds years after Zeno of Citium had founded the Stoic school. By their time, the Athenian school of Stoicism no longer existed, and the Stoic school had no formal head (“scholarch”) to guide it. Nevertheless, we learn a great deal about Stoicism from their writings. We also learn a great deal about Stoicism from many comments made by non-Stoics, most notably the Roman philosopher and statesman Cicero, who was a Platonist himself but nevertheless very sympathetic toward Stoic ideas. We do also have about a book’s worth of fragmentary sayings and passages attributed to the early Greek Stoics, although these tend to be of slightly more interest to academics than to newcomers. The Meditations of Marc...

For those of us who live our lives in the real world, there is one branch of philosophy created just for us: Stoicism. It’s a philosophy designed to make us more resilient, happier, more virtuous and more wise–and as a result, better people, better parents and better professionals. Stoicism has been a common thread though some of history’s great leaders... “To be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it.” — Marcus Aurelius The question of why and how we are supposed to live has been contemplated for centuries. Absurdist Albert Camus wrote that life is like the Sisyphean task of […] Just over sixteen years ago, I bought Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations on Amazon. Amazon Prime didn’t exist then and to qualify for free shipping, I had to purchase a few other books at the same time. I was 19 years old. I didn’t know what Stoicism was. I didn’t know who Marcus Aurelius was (besides the […] Today it’s all about passion. Find your passion. Live passionately. Inspire the world with your passion. Passion, we tell ourselves, is the source of joy. The Stoics disagreed. In fact, they believed that passion(s) were what contributed to our misery. To the experts and gurus who assure us that passion—that unbridled enthusiasm, that willingness to pounce on […] “We suffer more from imagination than from reality.” — Seneca The 21st century has been described as “The Age of Anxiety,” “The United States of Stress,” “The Worl...

Author • Neil Durrant Adjunct fellow, Macquarie University Disclosure statement Neil Durrant does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Partners Languages • • English For an ancient philosophy, Stoicism is doing extremely well in 2023. Quotes from the Stoic philosopher and Roman emperor It is hard to imagine This is, in part, due to international authors such as Holiday has probably been most influential in taking Stoicism to a wide audience. His new book Read more: It is incredible to see such public interest in ancient philosophy. As a philosopher myself, this is inspiring. There are many academic philosophers trying to break through to a public audience. We want to demonstrate the usefulness of philosophy to everyday life. Most philosophers and philosophies fail to do this. Yet if the success of these authors is anything to go by, millions of people are interested in the Stoic way of life. But there are problems with Stoicism, both in its modern and ancient forms. I am not a fan. Here are my three reasons to resist Stoicism, and also an alternative approach to the some of the same problems it addresses I have borrowed from Friedrich Nietzsche, the great 19th century German philosopher. Passivity Holiday, Pigliucci and Delaney agree: one of the most important and useful aspects of Stoicism is what is called...

[ Editor’s Note: The following new entry replaces the Stoicism was one of the dominant philosophical systems of the Hellenistic period. The name derives from the porch ( stoa poikilê) in the Agora at Athens decorated with mural paintings, where the first generation of Stoic philosophers congregated and lectured. The school of thought founded there long outlived the physical Athenian porch and notably enjoyed continued popularity in the Roman period and beyond. This entry introduces the main doctrines and arguments of the three parts of Stoic philosophy – physics, logic, and ethics – emphasizing their interlocking structure. We also review the history of the school, the extant sources for Stoic doctrine, and the Stoics’ subsequent philosophical influence. 1. Preliminaries 1.1 The School and its History The Stoic school was founded around 300 BCE by Zeno of Citium, a voracious reader of Socratic dialogues, who also studied under the Cynic Crates and was influenced by the teachings of Plato’s Academy and the Megarian School. The Stoa competed with the school founded only a little before in Athens by Epicurus, and Stoic and Epicurean views are often compared and contrasted. Zeno was succeeded in the leadership of the Stoa first by Cleanthes of Assos and then by Chrysippus of Soli, who headed the school from around 230 until 206 BCE and was by all accounts its foremost theorist and systematizer. Following Chrysippus, the position of “scholarch” passed to his former students, th...