Joe’s Comments (group member since Jan 22, 2025)

Joe’s comments from the Pewdiepie Book Review 2025 group.

Happy September, the 3rd free month is here! I know I'm personally very behind, hoping to get caught up a bit this month!

Happy August!

Happy July!

Finally just wrapped up The Republic, interested in what yall thought. Wasn’t quite my cup of tea, but I liked the break down of the four virtues and the three parts of the soul.

Happy June everyone! Personally I still have just over 100 pages still to go in The Republic, but for June I'm thinking of freshening things up and going back to some Eastern philosophy, maybe The Bhagavad Gita. Or browse the shelf and pick up something a bit briefer since I'm a little behind!

Just finished it today!

Overall I thought it was pretty good, though coming off of just reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, I found myself getting a bit annoyed with the run ons & tangents that come with a transcribed lecture format. Meditations cut a lot of the fat off some of these ideas, so definitely a lack of planning on my part, putting Epictetus after that!

There were some sections that really stood out to me though, and I'm overall glad I read it. I really like the definition that philosophy is about applying principles, and not just our pop-culture definition of someone who just sits in a study and ponders what the meaning of words are. I found his emphasis and thoughts on freedom really interesting, how acting against your will is the same as being a slave. Or how freedom is achieved by eliminating desire, not satisfying it. Also, how we can apply reason to impressions to shape our actions, and how to balance material things with contentment through virtues. Finally, that "steadiness and imperturbability" lead to true peace, and to keep in mind "persist" to endure hardship, and "resist" pleasures to increase self control.

The only part that I think I really didn't like was his thoughts on resisting laughter and only being friends with real philosophers. Seems a bit extreme for my personal taste, though I guess in the same way that rejecting all earthly desires in Buddhism may be. Just not for me!

Took quite a few pages and tangents to get there, but like I said, I think there are some really good nuggets in here.

Also here are some extra materials that I'm planning on going through in the near future!

Felix's Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG_ES...
The Slave Who Was Free | Berkeley's AA Long on Epictetus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMvge...
And similar to the "God" discussions above, this also caught my eye: Why Stoicism Doesn’t Work Without God | Tad Brennan on Stoic Ethics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hca14...

Happy May everyone!

A place to chat about anything off-topic, or suggestions/ideas for this Goodreads group.

A place to chat or ask questions about philosophy in general, unrelated to the current month's book.

Happy April everyone! I was able to get co-mod permissions so we can keep this group alive and well.

How's everyone liking Epictetus so far?

I needed something a little shorter after In the Buddha's Words, so I'm reading Meditations - Marcus Aurelius (translated by Hays) this month!

Jonatan wrote: "I would like to hear other's opinions on 1,2(1) "The Dart of Painful Feeling". My own reading of it would be something like... As you avoid pain, also avoid pleasure. What do you think?"

I think this is more about attachment to either pain or pleasure. It's not about avoiding either, but attaching yourself to the pain or pleasure causes the second dart.

If someone insults you, it's painful (the first dart, 'bodily' pain). If we are attached to that, and we stew on it (ex. thinking "he's right to say that, I am stupid, ugly etc., and I'm never going to get anywhere in life"), that's the second dart we're hit by ('mental' pain).

Or say you're in an uncomfortable or difficult situation. We feel the bodily pain of the first dart, discomfort or hardship. But then in our minds, we think about how we wish we weren't in this situation, and cause ourselves the mental pain, second dart, because we're attached to wanting to feel pleasure.

This is my understanding of that passage, I hope this helps!