Pewdiepie Book Review 2025 discussion

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?

Joe wrote: "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'm enjoying it so far! I like how it goes through different scenarios, reiterating that we are only responsible for our actions and not anyone or anything external to them. That might seem obvious, but having it broken down, logically proven and put into words is really satisfying. Also, Socrates was a real G.

I'm a little bit over a quarter in and so far I've liked it a lot. Initially my hopes were low as i wasn't able to find a physical edition therefore I ended up picking up a digital copy insteadñ. Tbh reading books on a screen isn't that much of my cup of tea (the recent In Buddha's words was quite a slog to read through for example), but thankfuly it seems to be on the lighter end.

Something I do find interesting so far is the usage of a singular God through the book. The translator's note didn't say anything about that. AFAIK Epictetus wasn't a Christian, so maybe he's just using monotheism as a figure of speech?

Normally when talking about Greek philosophers you think of like, the classical Greek era, so the fact that Mr. Epictetus is from not only the Roman period, but also the post-Christ Roman period is quite novel itself.

This is my first time directly interacting with stoicism. So far I'm liking it, and I can see how it managed to survive not only up to the Roman Empire but also to the modern day, in contrast to other Greek school of thoughts (iirc the translator's introduction precisely commented on how Stoicism being more ideologically fluid compared to Epicurianism is what allowed the former to survive longer?). I do have more thoughts but I'll leave those to when I'm finised, after all I haven't finished the free month's book either ;P

I've read only 25% of the book so far. I haven't read any Stoicism before and I'm finding it interesting.

Finished it yesterday night. I hesitate to say I found it a bit tedious. This is quite embarrassing since I tend to like what I've learned about stoicism thus far. But maybe I was unlucky with the format - I ended up dealing with scanned pages split into four separate pdf files, which was a hassle.

That being said, like Juna, I picked up on the way divinity is described. It's quite interesting. I had my timeline offset by quite a bit and didn't realize this until I saw that Mr Epictetus died in the year 135 (not B.C.). But I do feel like when the stoic philosopher uses, let's call it, the language of Christianity, it is not done so in a preachy way. Rather as a cultural backdrop of sorts. Actually, this fascinates me further!

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...

Finished this 20 days late... but better late than never! To be honest this text didn't grab my attention as much as I thought it would when I started it. I read this mostly as an introduction to stoicism, this book marking the first time I directly engage with it, so I didn't really give it a deep read. If I didn't understand anything, I just moved along.

Nevertheless I did like it a bit, it wasn't necesarily my cup of tea but it worked as a great refreshner of what stoicism entails. Something that surprised me is how much Socrates was brought up as an example to follow. I was aware of Plato's writting being very influential, like duh, classic Greek philosophy is normaly divided between pre-platonic and post-platonic for a reason, but directly encountering his influence "in the flesh" was a highlight for me.

I found it a bit humorous how the Enchiridion was saved for dead last. I thought for a good while that everything that came before the fragments themselves were said text.

All in all I can see why Felix put it for this year's reading, specially following In the Buddha's words. It isn't 1:1 of course, but there are some similarities to be had. For that same reason I can see why it was the biggest survivor out of all the post-platonic schools of thought, not only is it more flexible (as the translator mentioned in the preface) compared to its rivals, but it also lends itself favorable to a more ascetic/contemplative outlook on life, which corresponds to a mindset the Church would've tried to preserve and promote it as much as possible. Not to mention Epictetus' insistance on relying on providence.

If there's something that I take out of this book, it's pretty much what Felix said in his review (the one Joe linked). I might give Meditations a try sooner rather than later, maybe for the next free month.

This was one of the best books i have ever read. probably my second favorite. this was written a long time ago and a lot of it still rings true today.

It's amazing because you can read other selfhelp books or get advice from people and Epictetus was able to give the same advice so long ago. touching on topics that are still relevant today.

i liked the idea of destiny. destiny seems to often be a negative thing. here it was very life-affirming. if we try to live true to ourselves we will come out on top.

it was a pleasure reading this book. I had fun diving into it. I was blown away.