There is a particular collection of epistles, normally referred to as either The Moral Epistles or the Letters to Lucilius. It is packed with resources on Stoicismfrom more book recommendations to Stoic exercisesas well as a chapter from bestselling author Ryan Holidays book, The Obstacle Is The Way. So where should someone. Exactly. Epictetus didnt write any books; he was a teacher, in the same vein as Socrates, who made a point of not writing his ideas down. Before I met him, I thought of him as just the author of an academic book on Stoicism. The ancients simply opened schools, and competed with other schools. Going back to Marcus Meditations, that book was never meant for publication. Yes, and not only that, but science itself would be threatened, because then I could just turn the table and say, Oh, you cognitive scientists, you think that youre the only ones not rationalising and the whole damn thing collapses. Learn more about the meaning behind Daily Stoic's most popular medallion. Did the Stoics believe it was just one route to a good life, or was it the only way to achieve that? Both the Discourses and the Handbook were put together by one of Epictetus most brilliant students, Arrian. But, one can make an argument, as Seneca himself does, that too much wealth becomes obscene because you become focused on the externalities at the expense of virtue. Its short and organized around seven basic and highly useful concepts: the philosopher as doctor, what we control, the problem of emotions, dealing with adversity, our place in nature, life and death, and how to live together. For instance, he saysthis is one of my favourite quotations from the Meditations, from book two, chapter one: The dichotomy of control is crucial in Stoicism, particularly to Epictetus philosophy. Youve also published a couple of books that deal with Stoic themes. This is referred to as the ancient philosophy diaspora: the philosophers from different schools went out into different places. Its not something that everybody can dothe fact that he as a man achieved enlightenment, however, shows that it is achievable. It was during those years that Nero became unhinged: he killed his mother, several of his wives, and his stepbrother. He said: Oh, well thats because you only read one of my papers: if youd read the other ones youd see that Im really evil. So he turned things around; thats exactly what Epictetus did. This site has an archive of more than one thousand seven hundred interviews, or eight thousand book recommendations. If youre just going off splitting hairs in logic, then youre doing something different thats not particularly interesting or particularly relevant to living your life. Thats your first choice of books. Exactly. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. Thats why I gave you the example of the way Bill Irvine responds to insults. How do you react in life when things dont go your way? Whenever I need a break, like after our conversation today, Ill just go down and walk by the Forum. So, in modern terms, we would say that Epictetus thought that the physics and the logic were relevant at some level to the ethics, but they underdetermine it. Theyre not just writing about it; theyre not just theorising about it; they really practise it. You cannot read this book and not come away with a phrase or a line that will be helpful to you next time you are in trouble. Now, the reason Im bringing this up, in answer to your question, is because there is a good, interesting distinction between Christianity and the Stoic approach. A lot of people who surrounded the emperor would have wanted favours, and many were treacherous; but he says: Remember, they do this because they dont know better. is perhaps the only document of its kind ever made. My response would be: well, maybe you should be interested in the practice, to some extent. If the universe is made up of atoms, or its made up of something else, those are interesting questions but theyre not going to affect your life. So these are psychological tricks arent they? He was born a slave and badly treated when he was young: his master, through either carelessness or viciousness, broke his leg, and as a result he was crippled throughout his life. Of course I also went back and read the Platonic dialogues to look at the source of all of this. For me this made it clear that he had lived the philosophy of Stoicismtalk about having no control over external circumstances! As I said before, I came to philosophy late in life, other than my early bout in high school, and I love the field. Yes, the past few years have seem quite a number of new entries! Yes, this is something that few people hear about. Yet the first book of the Meditations opens with a long list of people whom he thanks. Is it really philosophy any more at that point? When I began reading Stoic works I started making furious notes and highlighting things and then going back to quotations one after another. It comes from within. img_width: 120, img_height: 120, title: true, price: false, facebook: false, free_clicks: false, }, This struck me as really profound. I know, right. Whats the main thesis of the Discourses? Then Nero became more unhinged both in life and in the way in which he was running the business of the empire, and eventually that led to revolt. Thats a good point. Now, Epictetus didnt necessarily reject this, he just said there were many different alternatives, many different ways of doing or understanding physics and understanding logic that would support the same way of living your life. So I did this, and the woman that was leading the excursion of course talked a lot about Nero, and she also talked a lot about Seneca.
The very first person he thanks is his grandfather: From my grandfather Verus I learnt good morals and the government of my emperor, and then he goes on to thank his mother, his teachers, his brother, and so on. Exactly. A few years ago I went through a midlife crisis and switched from my first academic career as an evolutionary biologist to become a philosopher. He also adds, which is crucial I think to understanding the whole thing, that it is that fact that the door is open that gives meaning to what you do. On top of that he was immensely wealthy. As a result of that the Roman general Sulla marched on Athens and laid siege to the city, destroying both Mithridates and many of the Greeks. He presents Stoicism in good light. Weve been talking about Roman Stoics, the most famous by far of the Stoic works is Marcus Aureliuss Meditations, which is your third book choice. There is nothing in Stoicism that says you cannot pursue wealth, health, education and all those sorts of things. This was a time in ancient Rome where philosophy was all over the place: Stoicism had to compete with Epicureanism, with Cynicism, with the Platonic Academy, with the Peripatetics, followers of Aristotle, and so on. At a certain point he felt like he had to justify doing this. In addition to the books he has written on Stoicism, he is one of the organisers of Stoicon, an annual meeting of people interested in exploring Stoicism as a philosophy of life. Am I right that many of the Stoics grounded their ethics on metaphysics, so the metaphysics actually shaped the ethics? The major Stoic interest group on Facebook now has over 82,000 members, and a number of other such groups have sprung up either for people interested in practising Stoicism locally (Italy, France, Portugal, Brazil, India, etc. Musonius was a major Stoic philosopher in ancient Rome. You could do two or three degrees in philosophy and never hear his name mentionedin fact I think I did. They literally were letters.
Seneca was a stoic as well, but like Marcus, he was practical and borrowed liberally from other schools. Nero refused and tried to keep Seneca in his entourage. Let me give you an example, I have a very good friend, who is both a practising Stoic and a practising Buddhist. ), or for those wishing to pursue particular aspects or applications of the philosophy (Stoicism and the military, politically progressive Stoicism, and of course Stoic dating!). It is the private thoughts of the worlds most powerful man giving advice to himself on how to make good on the responsibilities and obligations of his positions. They went to Rome which was basically the enemy headquarters. Thats right. The last major Stoic was Marcus Aurelius. The best way to translate this word is as magnanimity or great soul-ness. And I dont either. Check out all the bonuses or sign up below. Most contemporary ethics is focused on answering narrower questions such as: Is this action right or wrong? and: Under what circumstances is this permissible or not permissible?, For the ancients, ethics was the study of how to live a good life. It later became known as the Meditations, but it really was his personal philosophical diary. Many of them are short, just a few pages long. So do most of our analyses of what were doing in life. Obviously the Romans didnt know that. It is imminently readable and perfectly accessible. To make the best of what is in our power, and take the rest as it occurs.. s.onload = s.onreadystatechange = function() { This week our philosophy editor, Nigel Warburton, caught up with Massimo and asked him about new Stoicism books that have come out since they first spokeand why the philosophy remains so popular in 2020. For more recommendations (books, blogs, articles), sign up for. Then, eventually, he recovered the use of his legs to some extent, though never his arms or hands; and then for several years he has been living in a wheelchair. Yes. Larry Baker and James Stockdale are showjust how much a human being can actually deal with. Seneca was a stoic as well, but like Marcus, he was practical and borrowed liberally from other schools. The way youve described Marcus Aurelius, hes trying to tell himself that hes not going to be bothered by these people, but you sense, reading between the lines, that he probably will be. The first stop there was obviously Aristotle. Cicero was not a Stoic; rather he was a Platonic and academic sceptic. People like Larry Baker and James Stockdale are obviously fascinating because they show you just how much a human being can actually deal with. Seneca meant that every day that passes brings us one step closer to the end of our lives. I know youre both a theorist and a practitioner. In the meantime he had, under the tutelage of his second master, started reading and learning about philosophy, and became the pupil of Musonius Rufus. Their idea was that in order to figure out how to live your life, you needed to understand how the universe works and what your place in it wasthat would be the physicsand you also needed to understand how human beings reason and fail to reason well; thats where the logic came in. That is, as you say, a caricature of Stoicism; but its a very common one, and its not going to go away anytime soon. Its your own discipline. Thats the equivalent of 200 today presumably. If you react just on the basis of anger, youre very likely going to make wrong decisions or act rashly; but on the other hand there are situations where you do want to cultivate a sense of indignation, a sense of justice being violated, and you do want to do something about it, and thats a positive emotionthats something that the Stoics would definitely say you should do. He says so explicitly. Thats not the point. Lets move to your final choice A New Stoicism by Lawrence Becker. try {Linkcious.init(linkcious_config);} catch (e) {}}; Presumably Nero could have just taken the property if hed wanted it anyway. He led a fascinating life, and put forward a very interesting practical philosophy. Often people say that the Meditations come across as preachyand thats true to some extentbut they forget that he is preaching to himself. var s = d.createElement(t); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.async = 'true'; There are two recent biographies of Seneca that take that kind of attitude towards the man. For more recommendations (books, blogs, articles), sign up for the Daily Stoic free 7-day series. I just want to read you one which is right at the beginning of the Discourses, volume 1, chapter 1.32, its an example of the dichotomy of control, but its also an example of something that immediately endeared Epictetus to me: his sense of humour. And these are very practical piecesthey contain practical advice about dealing with situations where your emotions might lead you astray. ? You can only try to be healthy, and wealthy, and educated, and have a good life in the sense of externalities, but, you know, shit happens, so to speakthats not a direct quoteand Stoicism in the great part, especially Epictetus Stoicism, is about how to deal with situation where shit does actually happen. Epictetus studied with him for a number of years, and eventually started teaching on his own. So where should someone start with Stoicism? img_border: true, img_border_color: '#ECECEC',},}}; They didnt counsel apathy. He would have been much worse without Senecas advice. One of the things that I learned very early on, both from reading the ancient Stoics and also from modern Stoics, is that Stoicism is not supposed to be something that you impose on other people. I remembered reading about the ancient Greeks and Romans, and had vague recollections that these people had a very different conception of ethics. Is there really something to be afraid of, or not? If there is something to be afraid of, a real danger, by all means deal with the danger; but a lot of the time the first impression is actually misleading. I have to die. No other philosophic writing is more accessible. You can see that from the fact that they spent a certain amount of timenot a lot, but a certain amount of timearguing against other schools. We decided to put together a short list with three books that will help you both understand Stoicism but also teach you valuable lessons for life.
If you look at just the titles of the letters, thats revealing, titles such as: On true and false friendship. Then he lists the kinds of things that are under your control and those that are not: things under your control are your behaviour, your decisions, your rational thinking processes; the things that are not under your control are all the externalities: your health, your wealth, your education, your stature in life, your reputation. Stoics are not Cynics (in the ancient sense), so theyre not against wealth. The very first book that I read after this renewed interest in Stoicism was The Discourses of Epictetus. So thats how I got started. })(document, 'script'); Exclusive interviews with leading scholars on Stoicism, A Free Chapter from The Obstacle is the Way. Epictetus referred to it as the open door. He says to his students several times not to take it lightly: suicide for the Stoics was a serious business and he was not saying jump out of the window at the first problem; but, he says, if you do get yourself into a situation where there really is no way out and life really does become insufferable, or so painful, or you realise that you cannot contribute any longer to society in any meaningful way, then the door is open, you can leave of your own accord. Nero committed suicidewell, in fact Nero botched his attempted suicide and it was his secretary, Epictetus master, who helped him in the end, so hes the one who killed Nero. There is nothing in any of these biographies or in any of their writings that suggests that they behaved in a Spock-like way and suppressed their emotions in order to think about things rationally. Despite this he had a successful career as a university professor, and would grade his students papers by writing with his foot. Of the big three (Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus), Epictetus is the most preachy and for many, the least fun to read. Why am I reacting this way? The aim was to examine your emotion and to manage or gradually eliminate the negative, destructive ones. But he was very sympathetic to Stoicism. So the first time I heard about Stoic Week I thought, thats weird, and I didnt pay much attention to it. Some things are under your control and other things are not under your control. If hed refused to commit suicide then hed have been killed anyway, and on top of that his family would have lost his property. There was an open market of philosophical ideas, and to some extent, people just gravitated to one school or another depending on either the fame of the teacher or the appeal of the teaching. Another one I like is called, On festivals and fasting. Its hard to tell for sure, of course. What stands in the way becomes the way., Discourses and Selected Writings by Epictetus. We publish at least two new interviews per week. This is the Stoic idea of a sage, which has some affinities with Buddhism. All of these therapies bear traces of Stoicism. For Christians, if you think about it, they have their role modelJesuswho is, by definition, an impossible role model to emulate: hes a god. His answer, of course, is yes, and I tend to agree. Its over four years since I interviewed you about Stoicism, and there have been quite a few new books published on this topic since then. We have excellent accounts of the lives of ancient Stoics: we know a lot about the Greek Stoics, beginning from Zeno, the founder of the philosophy, through Diogenes Laertius Lives of the Philosophers, which includes several mini-biographies of Stoics; and of course we also know a lot about Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Musonius Rufus, and others too. The response by many academic philosophers has been: What did you expect? But thats like a mathematician, lets say, or an economist, whos caught badly managing his bank account and his personal finances, and who responds when challenged about this incompetence: Im interested in the theory here, not the practice. There is an anecdote in the Discourses where somebody, one of his students, tells him: I heard so-and-so speaking ill of you.And Epictetus response is: Well, thats because he doesnt know me well, because otherwise he would be saying much, much worse things.. Thats an interesting point about Stoicism: is it an impossible ideal? What they did counsel was apatheia. Its hard to imagine that Seneca actually took stories about the Olympian gods seriously. I think the Romans would definitely not go that far. This is the situation we are living now, in the second decade of the 21th century. I began reading more broadly, andcoming to philosophy in the second half of my lifeI had a lot to catch up with. Or we die because we have fear of death, or something different? There are so many topics that Seneca covers. Theres very little theoretical philosophy in Epictetus. Why do you think Stoicism is proving so popular? He wrote the definitive account of Alexander the Greats expedition. Within philosophy Im interested mostly in the philosophy of science, but you cant switch to philosophy and start studying it seriously and just be limited to your own technical field of expertise; at least you can, but I dont think you should. That was the view of early Stoics. Ive read an account by James Stockdale who survived torture and solitary confinement during the Vietnam War after his plane was shot down without breaking down through Stoic techniques, based on his memories of having studied Epictetus. Eric Schwitzgebel did that research. Then there is an essay on old age, for instance, on how to age gracefully and deal with it if youre lucky enough to live to experience that. Epictetus wasa slave who became aprominent philosopher and teacher, andbecame a friend ofemperors, Epictetus was an interesting life: a slave who turns prominent philosopher and teacher, who becomes friends with emperors and is kicked out by other emperors: its fascinating. In fact Epictetus says just this in several places in the Discourses. 28 Books On Stoicism: The (Hopefully) Ultimate Reading List. Its not as if you need to know all the details about how the world works in order to figure out how to live your life. Then there is William Irvines The Stoic Challenge, which uses a crucial tool in Stoicism what modern psychologists call the framing effect to change the way we think about setbacks. The reason I picked this book is because a great deal of writing by Seneca has survived, more than that of other Stoics. One of the things that I do, the reason Im here in Rome, other than that my family is here and its a nice place to visit, is because I wanted to be in a place that would inspire meIm literally next door to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. This is a more academic book than your other choices. Stoicism, in contrast with a lot of contemporary philosophy, puts a great emphasis on living well: the person who studies Stoicism, if sincere, will also practise it. Seneca explicitly addresses this in his letter to a friend On the Firmness of the Sage where he writes: Dont think that we mean by this just an unachievable ideal, just a theoretical thing. My guess is that it has to do with a combination of factors. linkcious_config = { settings: { type: 'products', key: '554dcb8be94147545ea541edf6bb94be38ad6e08', rows: 1, cols: 3, I simply cannot be perfect, and that of course is part of the Christian doctrine of repentance for your sins. The Enchiridion, the Handbook, is the short version that Arrian put together by picking the best bits from the Discourses. Is it coming now? But what you should do, if it is at all possible, is examine them, step back for a second and say: Why am I afraid? One of the things I find interesting about the modern Stoic authors is that those people really do try to live their life that way. Not just because he was there, but because he was Neros principal advisor, and in a couple of cases he wrote public letters defending some of Neros actions. There are a couple of places, for instance, where he says that we can have interesting discussions about metaphysics or logic, but those discussions have to bear on specific ethical issues. Some of them have been elaborated into fully-fledged psychotherapeutic approaches, such as Viktor Frankls logotherapy; cognitive behavioural therapy; Albert Ellis rational emotive behaviour therapy, and others. If it is now, well then I die now; if later, then now I will take my lunch, since the hour for lunch has arrived and dying I will tend to later. Yes. Thats like a kind of martial art: if you imagine in judo, somebody moving in a certain direction, well you help them carry on a bit and trip them up in the process. Yes. As he put it: I do occasionally wander into the enemies camp and I pay attention to what theyre saying, and if there is something good, I will use it. Just in passing, that strategy of turning insults into humour could result in a broken nose in certain contexts. Epictetus was focused on ethics, which is the third Stoic concern. He was a slave, born in Hierapolis, which is modern Pamukkale in Turkey, which at that time was a Greek city and became a Roman colony in the late 1st century/early 2nd century. Epictetus referred to suicide as the open door. What do you do then? But theyre not entirely under your control.
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