Stoic Meditations

Latest Episodes:

804. The deal Nature has struck with us Mar 04, 2021

Show notes

Away, then, with those follies, such as that it is miserable to die before our time. What time do you mean? That of nature? But she has only lent you life, as she might lend you money, without fixing any certain time for its repayment.

803. The difference between facts and judgments Mar 03, 2021

Show notes

The process of nature is this: that in the same manner as our birth was the beginning of things with us, so death will be the end; and as we were not concerned with anything before we were born, so neither shall we be after we are dead.

802. As happy as Metellus? Mar 02, 2021

Show notes

It never occurs to a man that such a disaster may befall himself. As if the number of the happy exceeded that of the miserable; or as if there were any certainty in human affairs.

801. The right time to die Mar 01, 2021

Show notes

Cicero argues that sometimes people live too long for their own good. Which makes the Stoic point that life itself is not an intrinsic good, but the means by which we exercise virtue.

800. The real reason we are afraid of death Feb 26, 2021

Show notes

Death, says Cicero, overtakes us quickly, and it is therefore endurable. It is the thought of leaving people and things behind that is painful. But the Stoics have a unique argument for why we should overcome that fear.

799. What Socrates said about death Feb 25, 2021

Show notes

For the whole life of a philosopher is, as [Socrates] says, a meditation on death.

798. On the rationality of grief Feb 24, 2021

Show notes

Why exactly to we grieve when loved ones are gone? Is it about them, about us? Does it depend on what we think will happen to them after death?

797. Two possibilities for the afterlife Feb 23, 2021

Show notes

How, then, can you, or why do you, assert that you think that death is an evil, when it either makes us happy, in the case of the soul continuing to exist, or, at all events, not unhappy, in the case of our becoming destitute of all sensation?

796. On the nature of the soul Feb 22, 2021

Show notes

Cicero mentions a number of accounts of the nature of the soul, explaining that the Stoic take is that the soul is a physical attribute responsible for our faculty of judgment. And it perishes with us.

795. Nature's bargain Feb 19, 2021

Show notes

Nature has presented us with this bargain: either not being born at all, or being born a mortal. Everything else is the fantasy of priests bent on scaring and controlling us, as Epicurus put it.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected