Stoic Meditations

Latest Episodes:

124. Why do you care for the opinion of posterity? Jun 01, 2018

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Marcus Aurelius observes that some people are obsessed with what posterity will think of them, even though they have no idea what sort of individuals will make that judgment. Meanwhile, how about taking care of those we know here and now?

123. Good and evil are entirely up to you May 31, 2018

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Epictetus says that externals (health, wealth, education, good looks) are the means by which we do good or evil in the world. So it is entirely up to us, really.

122. The glass is neither half full nor half empty, it just is May 30, 2018

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Seneca reminds Lucilius that we ought to hope for justice, but brace ourselves for injustice. This is just the way the world works, which doesn't absolve us from our responsibility to do something about it.

121. Do not seek fame, seek to be useful to others May 29, 2018

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Marcus Aurelius reflects on what is worth doing, and decides that it's not seeking fame, but rather being helpful to fellow human beings.

120. Nobody wants to believe falsehoods, and yet... May 28, 2018

Show notes

Epictetus says that people cannot assent to what they think is false. We always want to be right, but we are often not, which is why we rationalize things. That's why we need to improve our ability to arrive at correct judgments about things.

119. Think about bad stuff happening, get comfortable with it May 25, 2018

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Seneca introduces a classic Stoic exercise, the premeditatio malorum, thinking about bad things happening, playing them in your head, so you get comfortable with accepting whatever may come.

118. After every disturbance, re-center yourself May 24, 2018

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Marcus Aurelius reminds us that all sorts of things will disturb our rational soul, and that we therefore need to practice re-centering it in order to respond to situations with reason and equanimity.

117. Can you tell the difference between the baths and the mill? May 23, 2018

Show notes

Epictetus has a little bit of fun with the Skeptics, who denied the possibility of human knowledge. If that's the case, he says, how is it that you reliably go to the thermal baths when you want to relax, and to the mill when you want bread?

116. Some people get to the end without having lived at all May 22, 2018

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Seneca observes that some people begin to really live their life only near the end. And some never begin at all. So what's sort of life you want to live, and have you started already?

115. Take care of your body, it helps your virtue May 21, 2018

Show notes

Our body is a preferred indifferent, but Musonius Rufus tells us to take whatever care we can of it, as it is also an instrument of virtue. In other words, go to the gym...

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