The Stoic Magazine Library

No matter how good our life is at the moment, we can fully expect life to throw challenges at us sooner or later. Who would have thought last year that a large number of us would all be working from home for months on end?

A curious philosophy

Stoicism is a curious philosophy. At its core is the strong conviction that we need nothing and need no one to be happy. Epictetus clearly summarizes this conviction.

Living in challenging times

We are living in challenging times. As Covid-19 continues to ravage wide sections of the globe, many of us are experiencing social isolation, and much worse.

Two types of holidays

There are at least two types of holidays we can experience. One consists of maintaining the usual activity that we have during the year, replacing work with leisure. But the spirit is the same: filling the day with things to do or social relationships.

We are puppets on strings

If a person gave away your body to some passersby, you’d be furious. Yet you hand over your mind to anyone who comes along, so they may abuse you, leaving it disturbed and troubled—have you no shame in that?

(Epictetus, Enchiridion, 28)

Ancient Stoics talked a lot about God or gods. But who is this Stoic God? Does the Stoic God even remotely resemble what we mean by God (in a Judaeo-Christian sense)? In this miniseries, Kai Whiting explores these questions.

Chuck Chakrapani, Editor.

In Northern California, where I live, we can’t go outdoors because the air is fouled with noxious smoke from nearby wildfires and the countless other fires ravaging California, Oregon, and Washington State. A few days ago, the temperature outside was 115 degrees.

We act surprised by what happens

The cucumber is bitter? Then throw it out. There are brambles in the path? Then go around them. That’s all you need to know. Nothing more. Don’t demand to know ‘why such things exist.’ Anyone who understands the world will laugh at you, just as a carpenter would if you seemed shocked at finding sawdust in his workshop, or a shoemaker at scraps of leather leftover from work. (Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.50)

Turning ourselves into better humans

The study of how to turn ourselves into better humans sometimes suffers from a lack of “hard evidence.” I am a science writer, and I always look for quantitative as well as qualitative data when evaluating any practice or behavior.

Political civility

Politics in a modern world can often feel like a gladiator sport - like combatants, but armed with rhetoric that is designed to cause harm.

How to be with the world we live in

You’ve probably heard of VUCA before, to describe the kind of world we are living in - Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous. Considering what we’re going through now with the pandemic, these words are taking on new meaning and it is becoming increasingly difficult to see clearly, clarify our thoughts and decisionmaking. This is why we urgently need philosophy.

One of the attractions of Stoicism is that its main ideas have withstood the test of time. However, the peripheral ideas and what the ancient Stoics believed to be the foundation of Stoicism have been challenged by many. In recent times, among others, Lawrence Becker (New Stoicism), Massimo Pigliucci (Stoicism 2.0) and myself (Stoic Minimalism) have written about this. Piotr calls his version ‘reformed Stoicism’, and presents his thoughts in this series of articles.

Chuck Chakrapani, Editor.

Ancient Stoics talked a lot about God or gods. But who is this Stoic God? Does the Stoic God even remotely resemble what we mean by God (in a Judaeo-Christian sense)? In this miniseries, Kai Whiting explores these questions.

Chuck Chakrapani, Editor.

Be a citizen of the world (Epictetus, Discourses, 1.9) is an oft-quoted phrase. Other translations express this teaching as “citizen of the universe,” or “citizen of God.” However stated, there is a lot packed into this short assertion.

Living simply

Is it not madness and the wildest lunacy to desire so much when you can hold so little? (Seneca, Consolation to Helvia, 10)