The Stoic Life: Emotions, Duties, and Fate

by Tad Brennan

Tad Brennan explains how to live the Stoic life--and why we might want to. Stoicism has been one of the main currents of thought in Western civilization for two thousand years: Brennan offers a fascinating guide through the ethical ideas of the original Stoic philosophers, and shows how valuable these ideas remain today, both intellectually and in practice. He writes in a lively informal style which will bring Stoicism to life for readers who are new to ancient philosophy. The Stoic Life will also be of great interest to philosophers and classicists seeking a full understanding of the intellectual legacy of the Stoics.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Psychology

352 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2005

Reviews

[Michael A · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book pleasantly surprised me. I will need to read more serious books on the subject, but this one is a good start. The bias in this case seems to be someone with a strong analytic approach -- a heavy emphasis on language analysis and logic, so I thought it refreshing after having read a couple of books that more or less filter Stoicism through self-help. Not that there is anything wrong with the self-help approach, but those books don't begin to explain the whole breadth of Stoic philosophy in its logic, epistemology, and what not. This book does.

I'll start with why I like the book. It delves deeply into the core areas of Stoic psychology, epistemology, and ethical thinking. Then it goes on to examine how these affect and interact with Stoic notions of necessity, free will, fate, and so on. The treatment of each is in-depth and much more thorough than any other source I have encountered -- and it certainly is a lot more useful than reading an original text from one of the Roman Stoics. In addition to explaining thoroughly, the author then examines all of it through logical arguments and discussions. So we're told in vivid details about the inconsistencies of trying to hold a compatible view of responsibility/free will in a world driven by fate, the oddities of co-linked actions in events fated to occur vs. actions that are not fated and need to be deliberated about, and so on.

Some of this is eye-opening, especially the treatment of virtue. Virtue, for me, is hard to understand in this philosophy. After all, if a Stoic Sage is virtuous by definition in all that he or she does -- and more, what the Sage does is simply to act according to his own nature and the will of Zeus, following rationality and virtue in this sense -- it doesn't leave a lot of room for what I would consider to be more conventional virtue. A sage wanting to be philanthropic by having money and then using it for other people is actually engaged in vice because the desire for money as a good thing is actually misguided in its thinking. It is, in fact, a preferred indifferent and has no bearing on following the path of virtue and rationality in life. And so on and so forth by the way Stoicism defines its terms. Ditto how this idea of virtue clashes with being virtuous towards others (it is simultaneously maintained that Stoics will have some affinity and desire to be sure of others peoples' virtue and happiness even if these are also indifferent and outside of one's control).

In fact, I think the Greeks put rationality and virtue on entirely too high of a pedestal in general, but that's for another review I guess.

If I had any reason to dock any stars, it's because sometimes I found the logical discussions a bit too hard to follow. I haven't had real exposure to logic, so some of it is entirely lost on me. I also wonder how much of this is biased in the direction of pure logical analysis or misreading of the sources in question because of his analytic stance, especially since I am no expert on philosophy itself. That being said, I don't think these are huge flaws -- the book takes the subject in a very serious way as a philosophy and doesn't try to simplify it down or cherry-pick appealing quotes and ideas as many books on Stoicism would do.

I don't think this is the only book you would want to read if you're serious about understanding Stoicism -- I imagine a few more academic sources are needed. But for depth of coverage and analysis, this is far better than the books that treat it as a source of self-help, an inspiration for psychology, or what not. This book simply attempts to explain and analyze and offer some opinions, whereas other sources are more about selling Stoic ideas, often divorced from context, as a way of life. That's useful to some extent, but you also need to know where these ideas are coming from in order to decide if you want to accept them or not. This book can help you do that.

[Maher Razouk · Rating 5 out of 5]

سقراط
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تأثر الرواقيين بشدة بشخصية سقراط ، حيث تم تصويره في حوارات أفلاطون وكسينوفون والبعض الآخر من تلاميذه الذين فقدنا أعمالهم. في الواقع ، يخبرنا أحد المصادر القديمة أن الرواقيين الأوائل كانوا على استعداد لأن يُطلق عليهم اسم "السقراطيين". كان لسقراط تأثير مزدوج ، كمنظّر وكمثال يحتذى به.

كنموذج يحتذى به ، أثارت شخصية سقراط - التي انبثقت من كتابات تلاميذه - إعجاب الرواقيين بعبقريته اللاذعة ، وتعامله الهادئ مع الفقر ، وعدم الراحة الجسدية ، والموت. كان يبدو دائمًا سعيدًا ، ويبدو أن سعادته تأتي من داخله فقط . لم يكن لديه أي من الأدوات الخارجية اللازمة لحياة مترفة أو يحسد عليها - لا ثروة ، أو قوة سياسية ، أو مظهر جميل - وبدا أنه لا يحتاج إلى أي منها. بدا أنه يمتلك كل ما يحتاجه أو يريده ، وقد ظهر هذا الاكتفاء الذاتي في كل جانب من جوانب حياته: ثباته الذي لا يتزعزع في المحادثة ، وشجاعته في المعركة ، وتكامله في التعاملات الشخصية ، وعدم تأثره بأي إغراءات .

يخبرنا الراوي في أفلاطون «فيدو» أنه كان "الأفضل والأكثر حكمةً وإنصافًا" من بين كل من عرفهم فيدو - لكنه بدا أيضًا الأكثر هدوءًا ، والأكثر رضىً ، والأكثر سعادة. يبدو أن رضاه وفضيلته يسيران جنبًا إلى جنب - لأنه كان لديه كل ما يريده ولم يكن مدينًا لأي شخص ، ولم يكن بحاجة إلى شيء ، ولا يمكن إغوائه أو ترهيبه ؛ ولكن كان أيضًا بسبب اعتداله وشجاعته ، لا يمتلك الكثير ولا يريد المزيد. تركت هذه الشخصية غير العادية انطباعًا رائعًا لدى الإغريق القدماء ، تمامًا كما تركت انطباعًا رائعًا على أي شخص اليوم يقرأ اعتذار أفلاطون أو فيدو.
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Tad Brennan
The Stoic life
Translated By #Maher_Razouk

[Michael Baranowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first bought this book many years ago. I never finished it and ended up donating it to my local library. Recently, after reading so many good things about it I decided I might have unfairly judged it. That was definitely the case, as my older and (hopefully) wiser self realizes how amazing this book is - by far the best thing on Stoicism I've read that's not an original source (or a commentary by Cicero, who is most excellent). Brennan's erudition and wit shine through on almost every page, making this an excellent 'intermediate Stoicism' book - perfect for someone who gets little from all of the introductions now flooding the field, but who isn't interested in dry as dust, jargon-filled academic pedantry. Brennan made me realize that I'm not really a Stoic, while at the same time helping me to better understand and more fully commit to those aspects of Stoic doctrine I do hold to be true.

[Ed]

An excellent introduction to the topic. The history of the Stoic philosophy is helpful, and the explication is clear and without jargon. The author also makes clear how the religious beliefs of the ancients underlie Stoic beliefs. I found this most helpful in understanding Stoicism. I came to the book with many questions about the philosophy and left with most of them answered. Other books I had read about Stoicism appeared to advocate for this belief system; this one was tightly focused on explanation and let the reader choose if and whether to integrate Stoic beliefs with his or her current world view.

[Mark Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tad Brennan shows you where Stoicism is ugly and he shows you where it is beautiful. He invites you to wrestle with it like he has and, I think, he hopes that you'll come to a qualified appreciation of its ideas.

No. The Stoics had some bedrock ideas that can't be ignored by any generation. T.B. gives us the tools to see those ideas for what they're worth and, if we think we're ready, lets us explore them in a modern context.

This is one of my favorite books about tying Stoicism to modern life. There's a lot of jargon, but ain't that the Stoic way? I originally borrowed this book from a library. I quickly realized this is one to be kept in hardcopy.

[Aadesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the book that took me so much time to finish as I had to read a paragraph and reflect what it's trying to say. Yes, it's a theoretical book on stoic philosophy and boring. But the details, examples and construction of the book in magnificent. People who enjoy stoic self-help book won't be inclined towards reading this. Too much details in it but totally worth the two months time spent wrestling with it. After having a somewhat clear view of stoicism, I started comparing it to the teachings of Bhagwat Geeta. I found many similarities between the two but differences as well.

[Marks54 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw the author speak earlier this summer in a talk debunking some popular notions about what being a “Stoic” meant. The point was that Stoicism was an important school of classical Greek philosophy and vastly different from popular meanings associated with the use of “stoic” in common language. The talk was impressive and I started reading the author’s book on Stoicism and Stoic philosophy. The book provides a rich introduction to Stoic philosophy and I am moving on to read some of the key Stoic authors.

The story is complex and ties together ideas of metaphysics, ethics, epistemology, and issues of determinism, free will, and choice. It is not easily summarized and I am still processing it but I have a different idea of what it means to be a stoic and what contemporary claims about Stoicism should be considered seriously.

This was a rewarding book, although it required some mental push-ups to work through.

[crwx · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read about 10 stoicism books at this point and I'm sorry to say that very few of them are good, but this one is definitely one that I would recommend. It's THE deep dive book on Stoicism.

If you want to know the philosophical context/inheritance/background of Stoicism and really deep explanations of Stoic concepts--this is an excellent book. However, it is not for the faint of heart. It can become very abstract with philosophical concepts and requires several readings sometimes to digest the concepts (at least for me).

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engagingly written, a good overview of Stoic thought.

[Alberto Lagomarsini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es un buen libro para entender el estoicismo primitivo. Y comprender la psicología de los primeros estoicos. Pero está escrito para estudiantes de filosofía. Carece de consideraciones prácticas.

[Adam Slagell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating and mostly academic look into Stoicism, but not so academic that the author does not make judgments about the beliefs. Namely, when the argumentation fails, the author will show how.

What this book does really well is is show the system of stoicism as a whole and how it was constructed, changed over time, and influenced future endeavors such as Christianity and Neo-Platonism. In doing so, I gained both a respect for the ambition of Chrysipus and other founders, but also understood their failings better and how the discussions about free will over the next two millennia were set up.

I do think the author was maximally charitable and gave them the best interpretations of the stoic arguments of epistemology possible, or nearly so. That stoicism, like any comprehensive philosophical system that tries to establish an epistemology, a metaphysics, and an ethics (far more than morality but how to live a good life) fails upon close inspection to meet all of its ambitions is not surprising. How could it when coming from such a pre-scientific understanding of the world carrying over religious articles of faith that have become dead weight.

That said, you can still appreciate how much they discovered about human psychology and how much practical advice they generated for living so long ago and without understanding nature that well.

So don't throw the baby out with the bath water, but read this and appreciate that even though the ancient stoics would back themselves into contradictions and corners, that is only human and they still developed a lot of practical wisdom we could take away. You just have to accept that you cannot get to the wisdom of how to live a good life from pure deduction with mathematical precision. But it is still worth understanding and taking pieces from the stoic practice of the ancients.

[Gareth]

The Stoic Life is scrupulously researched and up to date, and lays many myths about the Stoics to rest. As such, it is essential reading for anyone who wishes to get a detailed grip on Stoicism. This said, as another reviewer has pointed out, the detailed discussion of how this or that doctrine should be interpreted do not always make for easy reading, and whilst this will not bother the academic, it may put off the more casual reader. But this is a minor gripe, all things considered, and the book is largely engaging and even humorous in places.

Gareth Southwell is a philosopher, writer and illustrator.

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The single best book on the subject of ancient Stoicism that I've read. Not an easy read, but brilliant and sometimes very funny.

[Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent deep dive into classical Stoic thought.

[Htb2050 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gives a detailed account of stoic doctrine other then ethics that is mostly featured in other books. Great book for learning about less talked tenants of stoicism.

[Javier · Rating 4 out of 5]

philosophy