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Stoicism: A Detailed Breakdown of Stoicism Philosophy and Wisdom from the Greats: A Complete Guide To Stoicism
Stoicism, one of the oldest, Western philosophical schools, has enchanted scholars and the general public alike for over two thousand years. Where some accounts of human nature and the particularly human good fall short by the reduction of human being to physical or psychical phenomena, Stoicism’s power lies in engaging with the whole range of human experience, addressing rationality, emotion, piety, will, and both inner and outer impressions, each on their own terms, in language that treats each as significant in its own right.
Stoicism is an active philosophy. That means that it is not enough to know its doctrines, one must also live them, develop habits that expand on and complete their ideas in practice. Practice, therefore, is also the focus of this book. The development of the reader’s inner and outer life, that they may follow their own path and discover what it means to “live life in accordance with nature.”
This book is a general introduction to Stoicism that pulls no punches when faced with the more complex aspects of Stoic doctrine.
Topics addressed
Grab your copy of a detailed guide on stoicism philosphy and wisdom! Make sure you ADD the AUDIO BOOK to your order. It is nice to listen as well as read it :-). They compliment each other.
Stoicism is an active philosophy. That means that it is not enough to know its doctrines, one must also live them, develop habits that expand on and complete their ideas in practice. Practice, therefore, is also the focus of this book. The development of the reader’s inner and outer life, that they may follow their own path and discover what it means to “live life in accordance with nature.”
This book is a general introduction to Stoicism that pulls no punches when faced with the more complex aspects of Stoic doctrine.
Topics addressed
Grab your copy of a detailed guide on stoicism philosphy and wisdom! Make sure you ADD the AUDIO BOOK to your order. It is nice to listen as well as read it :-). They compliment each other.
- GenresPhilosophyNonfiction
144 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 8, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 9, 2021
This book is not at all detailed!! I have to admit that it is probably my own fault to buy this book and actually expecting a detailed summary of everything important to know about stoicism, but I really mean it when I say this book isn´t detailed in any way. Every chapter is as short as a block-article on the internet. I can prove it. After realizing, that buying this book was a mistake, I tried to make the best out of it. I looked at every chapter and tried to find a block article that is at least as good or even better. I did not find good ones on the topics of Logic and Psychology (not like the book was better), but instead I found some freely accessible papers that are even more detailed. So here are all the resources you need to get ten times the knowledge this book provides for free on the internet:
History of Stoicism:
The book does not really provide anything more than two funfacts and an anecdote about every person, because of that I just listed the names, so that you can look them up on Wikipedia. I looked up every article myself. Believe me there is nothing interesting in the book, that Wikipedia wouldn´t mention.
Founder: Zeno of Citium
Second head of the Stoic school: Cleanthes of Assos
Third head of the Stoic school: Chryssipus of Soli
Middle Stoics:
Panaetius of Rhodes
Posidonius of Apameia
Late (Roman) Stoics:
Epictetus
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
The Good Life:
Stoicism and Epicurus —Similarities and Differences by Victor Lange
On control:
The book actually does treat this topic as bad as most people do. So here is an article that corrects that error and explains it much better.
What Many People Misunderstand about the Stoic Dichotomy of Control by Michael Tremblay
Virtues in Stoicism:
Both of these article are much more detailed than anything in the book, but somehow freely available on the internet.
What do the Stoic Virtues Mean?
and
The Threefold Nature of Stoic Ethics
Stoic Logic and You:
The book only explains the five Indemonstrables really briefly and gives some examples of how to apply them morally. These sources go to much more detail about everything else there was to stoic Logic.
Paper on Stoic Logic:
Stoic Logic (Cambridge Companion to Stoic Philosophy)
or
Language, Logic, and Reality: A Stoic perspective
Analysis of the five Indemonstrables:
Chrysippus’ Indemonstrables
and Mental Logic
Book on Stoic Logic:
Stoic Logic Free PDF book (1953) by Benson Mates
Stoic Cosmology and Theology:
This first article sticks closer to the terms used in the book, like the active and passive principle and divine fire, but other than in the book it is from a really religious view:
'Without the Divine, there is no Stoicism': A Polemic by Nigel Glassborow
a better article is this one. It explains the topic a lot better than the other article or the book:
'Providence or Atoms? Providence!' by Chris Fisher
The Theology part was not really in the book, but since it is in the title of the chapter I added this article On the Theology. Theism?Pantheism? Or Atheism? Of the Stoics.
Stoicism: God or Atoms?
Stoicism and Psychology:
short comparison of Stoicism and CBT:
A Comparative Analysis of Stoicism and
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
Detailed history and Comparison of Stoicism and CBT:
Stoic Philosophy as a Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
Philosophical Foundations of CBT:
THE PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF
COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY:
STOICISM, BUDDHISM, TAOISM, AND
EXISTENTIALISM
Stoicism and the emotions:
Stoics are not Unemotional!
Outer Troubles - Preventative Struggles in Stoicism:
These next two chapters are about stoic exercises. In today's time you can find thousands of self help articles about those, but here is the best and most interesting I could find.
A Guide to Stoic Exercises
Stoic Discomfort:
While the last chapter was more about exercises to build character this one is to
handle daily situations through what the stoics call meditation, which is not meditating like some Buddhist, but an active self-evaluation and a reflection on your progress.:
Here is a blog article that says at least a few more things:
Stoicism and Pain Management: 4 Techniques Practiced By Marcus Aurelius
Apatheia - Stoic inner Peace:
Repeats the topic of Stoicism and the emotions, because the previous chapter on this topic was not as detailed as the alternative I gave you. The main points he lists of here are that apatheia does not mean “free of emotion”, like apathy, but “free of passion” and that there are emotions that are connected to vice like pleasure and those that are connected to virtue like joy. If you still want a detailed article on this topic you can read this book review, which is not so much about the book it reviews as it is about this topic of apatheia and emotions and misleading descriptions of stoicism:
Stoic Book Review: More Than Happiness by Antonia Macaro
Other interesting stuff:
An important concept that the book does not mention about stoic ethics, probably because it is written as a self help book, rather than a detailed summary of a philosophy, is the concept of oikeiosis. Here is a good article about that.
Oikeiosis – Stoic Ethics and the Unbreakable Connection Between Self-Interest and the Interests of Others
If you still want an entire book on Stoicism get this one for free, I did not read it yet, but at least you don´t have to waste your money like I did:
Stoicism by St. George William Joseph Stock
Get through it on the website or download it in any format you like or got to the audio version and listen to it:
Stoicism by St. George William Joseph Stock (Audio Book)
If you still want more I would recommend to read the original sources instead of any self help stuff, that tries to make anything out of this philosophy that it isn´t. From what I know Chrissypus or the Roman Stoics are the most quoted so start with them.
History of Stoicism:
The book does not really provide anything more than two funfacts and an anecdote about every person, because of that I just listed the names, so that you can look them up on Wikipedia. I looked up every article myself. Believe me there is nothing interesting in the book, that Wikipedia wouldn´t mention.
Founder: Zeno of Citium
Second head of the Stoic school: Cleanthes of Assos
Third head of the Stoic school: Chryssipus of Soli
Middle Stoics:
Panaetius of Rhodes
Posidonius of Apameia
Late (Roman) Stoics:
Epictetus
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
The Good Life:
Stoicism and Epicurus —Similarities and Differences by Victor Lange
On control:
The book actually does treat this topic as bad as most people do. So here is an article that corrects that error and explains it much better.
What Many People Misunderstand about the Stoic Dichotomy of Control by Michael Tremblay
Virtues in Stoicism:
Both of these article are much more detailed than anything in the book, but somehow freely available on the internet.
What do the Stoic Virtues Mean?
and
The Threefold Nature of Stoic Ethics
Stoic Logic and You:
The book only explains the five Indemonstrables really briefly and gives some examples of how to apply them morally. These sources go to much more detail about everything else there was to stoic Logic.
Paper on Stoic Logic:
Stoic Logic (Cambridge Companion to Stoic Philosophy)
or
Language, Logic, and Reality: A Stoic perspective
Analysis of the five Indemonstrables:
Chrysippus’ Indemonstrables
and Mental Logic
Book on Stoic Logic:
Stoic Logic Free PDF book (1953) by Benson Mates
Stoic Cosmology and Theology:
This first article sticks closer to the terms used in the book, like the active and passive principle and divine fire, but other than in the book it is from a really religious view:
'Without the Divine, there is no Stoicism': A Polemic by Nigel Glassborow
a better article is this one. It explains the topic a lot better than the other article or the book:
'Providence or Atoms? Providence!' by Chris Fisher
The Theology part was not really in the book, but since it is in the title of the chapter I added this article On the Theology. Theism?Pantheism? Or Atheism? Of the Stoics.
Stoicism: God or Atoms?
Stoicism and Psychology:
short comparison of Stoicism and CBT:
A Comparative Analysis of Stoicism and
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
Detailed history and Comparison of Stoicism and CBT:
Stoic Philosophy as a Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
Philosophical Foundations of CBT:
THE PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF
COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY:
STOICISM, BUDDHISM, TAOISM, AND
EXISTENTIALISM
Stoicism and the emotions:
Stoics are not Unemotional!
Outer Troubles - Preventative Struggles in Stoicism:
These next two chapters are about stoic exercises. In today's time you can find thousands of self help articles about those, but here is the best and most interesting I could find.
A Guide to Stoic Exercises
Stoic Discomfort:
While the last chapter was more about exercises to build character this one is to
handle daily situations through what the stoics call meditation, which is not meditating like some Buddhist, but an active self-evaluation and a reflection on your progress.:
Here is a blog article that says at least a few more things:
Stoicism and Pain Management: 4 Techniques Practiced By Marcus Aurelius
Apatheia - Stoic inner Peace:
Repeats the topic of Stoicism and the emotions, because the previous chapter on this topic was not as detailed as the alternative I gave you. The main points he lists of here are that apatheia does not mean “free of emotion”, like apathy, but “free of passion” and that there are emotions that are connected to vice like pleasure and those that are connected to virtue like joy. If you still want a detailed article on this topic you can read this book review, which is not so much about the book it reviews as it is about this topic of apatheia and emotions and misleading descriptions of stoicism:
Stoic Book Review: More Than Happiness by Antonia Macaro
Other interesting stuff:
An important concept that the book does not mention about stoic ethics, probably because it is written as a self help book, rather than a detailed summary of a philosophy, is the concept of oikeiosis. Here is a good article about that.
Oikeiosis – Stoic Ethics and the Unbreakable Connection Between Self-Interest and the Interests of Others
If you still want an entire book on Stoicism get this one for free, I did not read it yet, but at least you don´t have to waste your money like I did:
Stoicism by St. George William Joseph Stock
Get through it on the website or download it in any format you like or got to the audio version and listen to it:
Stoicism by St. George William Joseph Stock (Audio Book)
If you still want more I would recommend to read the original sources instead of any self help stuff, that tries to make anything out of this philosophy that it isn´t. From what I know Chrissypus or the Roman Stoics are the most quoted so start with them.
November 12, 2017
Stoicism is a topic that I’ve never delved into on my own before. It was always something that I had to read briefly about for a class and then either apply it to a project or write a paper on it. Maybe because it was for school, but I never understood it until now. In Stoicism: A Detailed Breakdown of Stoicism Philosophy and Wisdom from the Greats by George Tanner, the learning process felt personal. Reading it was more like a professor speaking to his students instead of the students reading a textbook. There were a lot of examples that used “I” and put the reader into the context of the example. The book spoke directly to the reader and even encouraged readers to check out other sources about Stoicism. Tanner is clearly interested in making the reader understand the concept of Stoicism instead of just spouting off information to seem high and mighty.
Although this book is educational it is compelling to read. Some of the examples had me laughing like the one with the dog because they were easy to relate to and easier to understand. The anecdote about the author’s grandmother was really eye opening and it could be that it hits close to home with my own grandparent, but it persuaded me more than anything else in the text to seriously consider studying Stoicism. I enjoyed the small humorous moments like saying you shouldn’t cut ties with a sibling because you might need a kidney one day.
I wasn’t sure how much I was going to get out of this book, but I’m pleasantly surprised that I can apply a few ideas to my life. For instance, analyzing a situation before reacting to it is something I clearly have to work on and I now think Stoicism will help me better that aspect of my life. The quote “we should remember exactly how small we are” is humbling without making the reader feel like they have been living his or her life wrong.
There were two things that I didn’t care for in this book. The first was that the history of Stoicism was too long. I think a page of background information would probably have been enough. It was also a little hard to remember all the Greek names and who said what so I had to keep going back to the history section to see if they were mentioned before and in what context. The second thing was that I got lost during the schemata examples, but the bakery example got me back on track. I had to read it over a few times and still didn’t quite understand it, but that was the only part of the book that tripped me up.
I think this book is a good beginning tool for people interested in Stoicism and it is much more helpful and easier to understand than any textbook I had to read for a Philosophy class.
Although this book is educational it is compelling to read. Some of the examples had me laughing like the one with the dog because they were easy to relate to and easier to understand. The anecdote about the author’s grandmother was really eye opening and it could be that it hits close to home with my own grandparent, but it persuaded me more than anything else in the text to seriously consider studying Stoicism. I enjoyed the small humorous moments like saying you shouldn’t cut ties with a sibling because you might need a kidney one day.
I wasn’t sure how much I was going to get out of this book, but I’m pleasantly surprised that I can apply a few ideas to my life. For instance, analyzing a situation before reacting to it is something I clearly have to work on and I now think Stoicism will help me better that aspect of my life. The quote “we should remember exactly how small we are” is humbling without making the reader feel like they have been living his or her life wrong.
There were two things that I didn’t care for in this book. The first was that the history of Stoicism was too long. I think a page of background information would probably have been enough. It was also a little hard to remember all the Greek names and who said what so I had to keep going back to the history section to see if they were mentioned before and in what context. The second thing was that I got lost during the schemata examples, but the bakery example got me back on track. I had to read it over a few times and still didn’t quite understand it, but that was the only part of the book that tripped me up.
I think this book is a good beginning tool for people interested in Stoicism and it is much more helpful and easier to understand than any textbook I had to read for a Philosophy class.
December 4, 2017
Detailed Informative Useful Book
This book had a lot of good information to share. I learned about stoicism, its history, and what makes it so important. It is a way of living based on ancient philosophy principles. The book explains how this way of living helps you control your emotions m, be a better person, and live a better life. It was a great read.
This book had a lot of good information to share. I learned about stoicism, its history, and what makes it so important. It is a way of living based on ancient philosophy principles. The book explains how this way of living helps you control your emotions m, be a better person, and live a better life. It was a great read.
December 11, 2017
A Great Philosophical Literary Experience
A fascinating read which adapts the philosophy, tenants, brief history, and values of Stoicism from a weighty and perhaps often a very terrifyingly academic venture into a very manageable, easily relatable, and overall enjoyable literary experience for the philosopher and layman alike.
A fascinating read which adapts the philosophy, tenants, brief history, and values of Stoicism from a weighty and perhaps often a very terrifyingly academic venture into a very manageable, easily relatable, and overall enjoyable literary experience for the philosopher and layman alike.
May 12, 2018
A great introduction to the philosophy of Stoicism. The information is well laid out and very approachable. He does a great job of explaining different concepts of stoicism. Got this book for a paper I needed to write on the subject and I'm so glad I found it. It was not only helpful but quite a good read.
February 9, 2018
Great topic, but not that simple to read/understand
This book will open your eyes and will show a different way of behaving. You’ll become more resistant to any issues that appear in your life.
This book will open your eyes and will show a different way of behaving. You’ll become more resistant to any issues that appear in your life.
March 28, 2020
Overall this book is an excellent introduction to Stoicism. Unfortunately the Kindle version I read contained multiple spelling errors (over a dozen). But the information presented really got my attention and after reading this short work I'm going to explore the topic of stoicism further.
March 12, 2018
Descent but not impressive
Overall, it is a descent book, though somewhat shallow. The Kindle edition I bought contained quite a few typos, which was really unfortunate.
Overall, it is a descent book, though somewhat shallow. The Kindle edition I bought contained quite a few typos, which was really unfortunate.
November 11, 2019
Great Coverage of Stoic Thinking
Overall, Captures the main focus of the Ancient Stoics and a certain degree of application to today's situations and encounters.
Overall, Captures the main focus of the Ancient Stoics and a certain degree of application to today's situations and encounters.
December 19, 2020
Good but not as good as How to Be a Stoic read just before
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews