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 include:
- The history of the ancient Stoics.
- The nature of good and evil, virtue and vice, and positive and negative externals.
- The difference between those things in our control and those things not in our control.
- Stoic Logic and practical reasoning.
- Stoicism's role in the development of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
- Stoic exercises and daily practice.
- Theology's role in Stoicism and Stoic cosmology.