Podcasts about musonius rufus

Modern interpretations of Stoicism are often wildly inaccurate, reducing the philosophy to a life hack for suppressing emotions, a tool for productivity-obsessed entrepreneurs, or a justification for toxic masculinity. But do any of these portrayals hold up under scrutiny? In this episode, I break down these misconceptions by turning to the words of ancient Stoic thinkers—Musonius Rufus, Zeno of Citium, and others—who show us that Stoicism is far more profound and ethical than pop culture suggests. We'll explore: — Why Stoicism is not about indifference but about focusing on what truly shapes our character. — How both men and women are equally called to pursue Virtue. — Why Stoics deeply care about things outside their control, despite the common misunderstanding. — The true meaning of Stoic emotional management, which is about reasoning through emotions rather than repressing them. At its core, Stoicism is a philosophy of moral excellence, a commitment to aligning ourselves with Nature, and a guide to becoming a force for good in the world. Getting Stoicism right matters—not just for personal development, but for the influence it has on society as a whole. “The goal (of Stoicism) is to live in agreement with nature. For our individual natures are parts of the nature of the whole universe.” — Zeno of Citium Join the Practical Stoicism community, the Society of Stoics, at https://community.stoicismpod.com. Members enjoy ad-free episodes, weekly journaling prompts, a membership medallion, and access to regular live calls and discussions. Join today at https://community.stoicismpod.com. Buy my book: https://stoicismpod.com/book Read source material: https://stoicismpod.com/far Subscribe on YouTube: https://stoicismpod.com/youtube Follow me on Bluesky: https://stoicismpod.com/bluesky Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a sort of "Re-Boot" for The Leftover Pieces; Suicide Loss Conversations podcast after taking the last 6 weeks of 2024 "off" I am choosing to 'start over' this way .... please listen weekly to Down the Rabbit Hole episodes dropped at the start of each week and / or listen daily to these readings from The Daily Stoic-- nuggets as I call them -- of wisdom passed along from Ryan Holiday. Stephen Hanselman and the ancient Greek Philosophers such as Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus and Seneca. I hope you will do both. I hope you will consider journaling along with me. I hope it provides some inspiration, even motivation to keep going, to how we do what we do, to why we do what we do in moving forward 'after'...I hope it is a tool that you (like me) might find useful in your life after loss by suicide.The following is an excerpt directly from the book -- they are not my words and are placed here as a sample to help you journal. The full book must be purchased to follow along all year. I am ONLY doing this in January (on the podcast).TODAYS READING January 16 - NEVER DO ANYTHING OUT OF HABITGet your own copy of The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman**“So in the majority of other things, we address circumstances not in accordance with the right assumptions, but mostly by following wretched habit. Since all that I've said is the case, the person in training must seek to rise above, so as to stop seeking out pleasure and steering away from pain; to stop clinging to living and abhorring death; and in the case of property and money, to stop valuing receiving over giving.” —MUSONIUS RUFUS, LECTURES, 6.25.5–11 "A worker is asked: “Why did you do it this way?” The answer, “Because that's the way we've always done things.” The answer frustrates every good boss and sets the mouth of every entrepreneur watering. The worker has stopped thinking and is mindlessly operating out of habit. The business is ripe for disruption by a competitor, and the worker will probably get fired by any thinking boss. We should apply the same ruthlessness to our own habits. In fact, we are studying philosophy precisely to break ourselves of rote behavior. Find what you do out of rote memory or routine. Ask yourself: Is this really the best way to do it? Know why you do what you do—do it for the right reasons." - all above quoted words from the credited to the authors**I hope you are considering journaling along with us in January__________________________________________________________________________Go to my WEBSITE "The Leftover Pieces; Rebuilding You" is support central.PS....The FIRST SESSION of the Legacy Writing Project in 2024 has finished & the last one is under way...GET ON THE LIST NOW for the SINGLE DATE start for 2025For a way to leave a Legacy of your child - GO HEREIf you, or someone you know, is struggling ww suicidal thoughts, reach out:CALL 988   OR, you can also TEXT the word "HOME" to 741741 in the USASupport the show

Get to know Musonius Rufus, the resilient Stoic philosopher and teacher of Epictetus, in today's episode. Learn how he exemplified Stoic principles when faced with multiple exiles, adversities and in times of tyranny and hardship. The Daily Stoic New Year, New You Challenge is 3 weeks of ALL-NEW, actionable challenges, presented in an email per day, built around the best, most timeless wisdom in Stoic philosophy, to help you create a better life, and a new you in 2025. Why 3 weeks? Because it takes human beings 21 days to build new habits and skills, to create the muscle memory of making beautiful choices each and every day.Head over to dailystoic.com/challenge today to sign up.

The Stoics liked to draw parallels between the practice of philosophy and other, more physical pursuits that require concentrated effort to improve one's ability.One popular analogy was to present Stoicism as a type of training similar to that an athlete would undertake.In this episode, we reflect on Epictetus's comparison of life to the Olympic Games, and Musonius Rufus's use of Stoicism as a means of strengthening one's soul.----☀️ Start your next 10 days like a Stoic with morning routines that take only 10 minutes to complete.Free Stoic 10-day series: https://whatisstoicism.com/10days Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, this is Brian, and today we've got another Heroic +1 for you featuring wisdom from Musonius Rufus.   If you're enjoying the podcast, make sure to subscribe.   And if you're really enjoying it, I think you'll love checking out all of the other ancient wisdom, modern science, and practical tools you need to activate your Heroic potential and change the world, together.   Head to heroic.us to check out all of the goodness. You can download free Philosopher's Notes, master classes, and our scientifically-proven app that was built by the same team who helped create Slack, Tinder, and Uber Eats.   It's time to forge excellence, activate your heroic potential, fulfill your destiny, and change the world with us.   YOU are the hero we've been waiting for!   Welcome to your new training platform.

In dieser Folge des Stoiker Podcasts sprechen Markus und Ralph mit Tino Deckert über Musonius Rufus und sein Werk. Tino hat in Folge 36 seine Überarbeitung von Epiktets Werk vorgestellt und heute sprechen die Podcaster mit ihm darüber, wie es zu seinem neuesten Werk kam und welche Herausforderungen ihm auf dem Weg begegnet sind. Dann besprechen die Podcaster, ob sich Musonius, Seneca oder Epiktet untereinander kannten oder zitiert haben, bevor sie sich der Quellenlage und Musonius' Inhalten widmen. Gerade die Art der Inhalte unterscheidet Musonius von anderen Stoikern. Daher besprechen Tino, Markus und Ralph, welche Themen von Musonius aus heutiger Sicht besonders sind und wie man mit ihnen umgehen kann. Zum Abschluss verrät Tino noch, was es Neues zu Musonius geben wird und wo man Tino dieses Jahr hören und sehen kann. Vielen Dank an Tino Deckert für das interessante Gespräch! Die Links zu dieser Folge findest du auf http://www.stoikerpodcast.de/folge-60/ Themen (00:00) Intro (00:47) Einleitung (01:30) Herzlich Willkommen Tino Deckert (01:50) Wie kam es zu deinem neuen Projekt? (05:45) Was waren die Herausforderungen bei der Überarbeitung? (07:50) Wer war Musonius Rufus und was macht seine Philosophie aus? (13:30) Kannten sich Seneca und Musonius? (15:25) Hat Epiktet mal Musonius erwähnt? (18:20) Quellenlage zu Musonius (Stobaios) (19:50) Musonius' Ratschläge - ein ungewöhnlicher Stoiker? (23:00) Familie, Ehe & Gleichheit von Männern und Frauen bei Musonius (27:00) Kritik an Musonius' Position (34:45) Umgang mit unliebsamen Thesen (38:30) Musonius' Ratschläge - pragmatisch & funktional (51:15) Abschluss & Ausblick (55:00) Mehr zu Musonius & von Tino in der Zukunft (55:55) Tino auf der Stoicon-X Hannover 2024 (57:40) Danke Tino! Die Buchempfehlungen aus dieser Folge findest du hier: http://www.stoikerpodcast.de/buecher/ Wenn dir gefällt, was wir tun, spendiere uns einen Kaffee oder Tee: http://www.stoikerpodcast.de/spenden/ Und mit unserem Newsletter halten wir dich über neue Folgen und Veranstaltungen auf dem Laufendem: http://www.stoikerpodcast.de/newsletter/ Schreibe uns deine Frage direkt an mail@stoikerpodcast.de Intro- und Outro-Musik von Tobias Rueß Mehr über uns auf http://www.stoikerpodcast.de

Discover ancient Stoic secrets to unshakable self discipline in our latest podcast episode. Delve deep into Stoic philosophy and learn from Musonius Rufus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus how to master self control for true freedom. Uncover practical strategies to embrace hard work and find your guiding North Star. This episode offers a blueprint for intentional living, purposeful effort, and philosophical resilience. Join us on a transformative journey to cultivate enduring discipline through Stoic wisdom.

Epicteto traza una clara distinción entre el aprendizaje de los libros, el dominio del contenido de determinados tratados y lo que podría llamarse educación para la vida, en la que uno adquiere las actitudes y hábitos que permiten un comportamiento correcto. Esto último es de suma importancia; el primero puede tener algún valor instrumental pero si se le da demasiada importancia puede resultar un obstáculo para el desarrollo ético. El programa de estudios que ofrecía en su escuela de filosofía Estoica incluía la lectura de tratados filosóficos autores estoicos del periodo helenístico, como la obra sobre el impulso de Crisipo y los escritos lógicos de Arquedemo. Las frecuentes referencias esquemas lógicos formales sugieren que estos también se enseñaban, como lo habían sido en el plan de estudios de Musonius Rufus. Y por último hay algunas pruebas de la enseñanza de los que los antiguos llamaban física en la filosofía de la naturaleza. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/VidaEstoica Síguenos en nuestras redes sociales:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vidaestoicaoficial Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VidaEstoicaOficial Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@vidaestoicaoficial --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/vidaestoica/message

In today's episode, I explored the question of whether women should engage in the study of philosophy, particularly Stoicism, through the lens of Musonius Rufus, a Roman Stoic philosopher. Musonius was asked if daughters should receive the same education as sons, and his response is profoundly relevant today, especially in discussions about gender roles in philosophy. Stoicism, often perceived as a male-dominated philosophy, asserts that Virtue – the knowledge of how to live excellently – is attainable by anyone, regardless of gender. This principle is rooted in the belief that both men and women possess the same rational faculty – a brain capable of learning and understanding. The slight physical variations between genders do not impede the ability to acquire knowledge, including Virtue. Just as men and women can learn skills like math or carpentry, both can equally learn and practice Virtue. Musonius, whose teachings have been passed down over centuries, believed firmly in the equality of men and women in their capability and inclination toward Virtue. According to him, both genders have been endowed with reason by the gods, share the same senses, and have similar body parts. More crucially, both have a natural tendency toward virtue and are equally capable of distinguishing good from bad. He argued that if both men and women are naturally inclined to virtue and capable of discerning right from wrong, there's no logical reason why the study of philosophy – the pursuit of a good life – should be exclusive to men. If it's fitting for men to be good, it's equally fitting for women. Musonius went further to describe qualities that are ideal for a woman leading a good life, suggesting that these are best nurtured through the study of philosophy. He contended that a woman versed in philosophy would be a better housekeeper, a prudent manager of household affairs, chaste, self-controlled, not given to excessive grief or uncontrolled emotion, and a just and courageous individual. These teachings of philosophy, he argued, are universal and apply equally to men and women. Addressing concerns that women engaging in philosophy might become arrogant or neglectful of their duties, Musonius emphasized that philosophy should be a practical guide to life. He compared it to medicine, which is valuable only if it contributes to the health of the body. Similarly, philosophy is meaningful if it leads to the betterment of the soul. The overarching point Musonius made was that everyone, regardless of gender, should fulfill their duties and roles virtuously. His views, though rooted in the gender norms of his time, transcend these to focus on the universal human duty to care for our circles of concern, control desires, maintain emotional stability, and act courageously. In conclusion, Musonius Rufus, a thinker ahead of his time, affirmed that the pursuit of Stoic Virtue is not confined by gender. His teachings remind us that the path to sagehood and the practice of Virtue are open to all, encouraging a more inclusive understanding of Stoicism that resonates with contemporary perspectives on gender equality in the pursuit of philosophical knowledge. -- Become a Patron : https://stoicismpod.com/members Visit the store : https://store.stoicismpod.com Check out Neurohacker : https://neurohacker.com/practical Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dramos brings up quotes from Jay Z and Musonius Rufus to illustrate the stoic principle of taking action. He explains how being our own biggest cheerleader can lead to a happier and more fulfilled life.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"Plant yourself not in the shadows of your teachers, but in their footprints, and seek not to follow the masters in function, but in form, not in identity but in manner, not in the specific tasks and aims they had, but in the general principles, systems, and philosophies they used." - Musonius Rufus. Support Stoicism by Robots on Patreon and get access to new and original Stoic passages crafted by our AI's unique interpretation of Stoic principles. These passages are not mere regurgitations of old texts – they are fresh, thought-provoking, and wholly original. Learn more at www.patreon.com/StoicismByRobots. Visit www.StoicismByRobots.com/store to discover prints and accessories featuring your favourite Stoic passages. Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stoicismbyrobots/

Why does Musonius Rufus lecture on food and men's fashion?Caleb talks to William O Stephens to find out. Learn how the Stoics thought about ordinary issues of life in order to live extraordinarily well.https://williamostephens.com/(01:11) Musonius Rufus and Epictetus(09:09) Why Care About Food and Fashion?(13:42) Food(23:16) Optimizing Health(29:58) The Social Dimension(36:14) Beards(45:17) What is Natural?(52:42) Epictetus on Beards***Subscribe to The Stoa Letter for weekly meditations, actions, and links to the best Stoic resources: www.stoaletter.com/subscribeDownload the Stoa app (it's a free download): stoameditation.com/podIf you try the Stoa app and find it useful, but truly cannot afford it, email us and we'll set you up with a free account.Listen to more episodes and learn more here: https://stoameditation.com/blog/stoa-conversations/Thanks to Michael Levy for graciously letting us use his music in the conversations: https://ancientlyre.com/

Want to become more Stoic? Join us and other Stoics this October: Stoicism Applied by Caleb Ontiveros and Michael Tremblay on MavenWhat does a Stoic eat?How does a Stoic think about food?That's what Caleb and Michael discuss in this episode.Citing all 4 of the Roman Stoics, they cover how ancient Stoics thought about food and how that can shape our behavior today.(01:56) Intro(05:06) Musonius Rufus on Food(14:05) The Social Role of Food(19:09) Seneca on Food(24:53) Mythbusting(28:00) What Should Other People Eat?(33:00) Context Context (35:29) Implications***Subscribe to The Stoa Letter for weekly meditations, actions, and links to the best Stoic resources: www.stoaletter.com/subscribeDownload the Stoa app (it's a free download): stoameditation.com/podIf you try the Stoa app and find it useful, but truly cannot afford it, email us and we'll set you up with a free account.Listen to more episodes and learn more here: https://stoameditation.com/blog/stoa-conversations/Thanks to Michael Levy for graciously letting us use his music in the conversations: https://ancientlyre.com/

The Stoics were towering figures of their own time. Marcus Aurelius was cheered in the streets. Cato was widely admired. Musonius Rufus was called the Roman Socrates. Their reputations preceded them, as it should with anyone who takes their commitment to the virtues of courage and discipline and justice and wisdom seriously.But how do we square these reputations, which the men obviously cultivated and worked hard not to betray, with the idea that a Stoic isn't supposed to care about what others think?✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

William Irvine was a professor at Wright State University and is the author of seven books, including his best-seller, "A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy." During our conversation, Bill talks about the history of the Stoics, an ancient school of philosophy that began in Athens in 300 B.C. He also talks about the psychological training that the Stoics encouraged, including negative visualization, a practice aimed at reducing the human tendency for insatiability and increasing our gratitude for the many gifts of our lives.Bill's book helped to launch the modern renaissance of Stoicism. The Stoic's message - including those of Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus, and Musonius Rufus - emphasized the importance of intentional struggle and temporary hardship, to align one's body and one's mind with the reality of life itself. This message is evergreen in creating resilient and capable people, and ever more important in our increasingly super-convenient, super-addicted "Brave New World."Stoicism reminds me of a quote from Veritas Savannah:“Prepare your child for the road, not the road for your child.”------------Support via VenmoSupport on SubstackSupport on Patreon------------Show notesRate on SpotifyRate on Apple PodcastsSocial media and all episodes

There's a story of Musonius Rufus paying a thousand sesterces to a charlatan posing as a philosopher. When an observer stepped in to say that the man was a liar unworthy of the payment, Musonius replied, “money is exactly what he deserves.”It's always revealing to look closely at those who seem to prize financial success above all else. The writer Anne Lamott jokes in Bird by Bird, “Ever wonder what God thinks of money? Just look at the people he gives it to.” Marcus Aurelius writes in Meditations, “Robbers, perverts, killers, and tyrants—gather for your inspection their so-called pleasures!”---And in today's Daily Stoic Journal excerpt reading, Ryan meditates on the unique aspects of Stoic joy, and why it should be practiced every day.

Do you take care of your body? To you treat it like a temple? Do you exercise it and strengthen it as much as your mind? Today I want to talk about how important it is to treat your body as good as, if not better than your mind It is necessary to care for the body, not for its own sake, but because it is the abode of the soul. — Musonius Rufus

Want to become more Stoic? Join us and other Stoics this October: Stoicism Applied by Caleb Ontiveros and Michael Tremblay on Maven“Musonius used to say that it was the height of shamelessness to think about how weak our bodies are when enduring pain, but to forget how weak they are when experiencing pleasure.”In this podcast, Michael and I discuss the Roman Socrates, Musonius Rufus. Musonius Rufus was the teacher of Epictetus. He played a crucial role building Roman Stoicism. In this podcast we talk about who he was, what writings we have from him, and three key practical ideas from his thought: the division between theory and practice, Spartan minimalism, and egalitarianism. (01:40) Introduction(09:31) Theory vs Practice(17:33) Spartan Minimalism(31:35) Egalitarianism***Stoa Conversations is Caleb Ontiveros and Michael Tremblay's podcast on Stoic theory and practice.Caleb and Michael work together on the Stoa app. Stoa is designed to help you build resilience and focus on what matters. It combines the practical philosophy of Stoicism with modern techniques and meditation.Download the Stoa app (it's a free download): stoameditation.com/podListen to more episodes and learn more here: https://stoameditation.com/blog/stoa-conversations/Subscribe to The Stoa Letter for weekly meditations, actions, and links to the best Stoic resources: www.stoaletter.com/subscribeCaleb Ontiveros has a background in academic philosophy (MA) and startups. His favorite Stoic is Marcus Aurelius. Follow him here: https://twitter.com/calebmontiverosMichael Tremblay also has a background in academic philosophy (PhD) where he focused on Epictetus. He is also a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. His favorite Stoic is Epictetus. Follow him here: https://twitter.com/_MikeTremblayThank you to Michael Levy for graciously letting us use his music in the conversations: https://ancientlyre.com/

Get the full audiobook summary, PDF, infographic and animated book summary on StoryShots: https://www.getstoryshots.comStoryShots Book Summary and Review of The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan HolidayLife gets busy. Has The Daily Stoic been on your reading list? Learn the key insights now.We're scratching the surface here. If you don't already have Ryan Holiday's popular book on philosophy and self-help, order it here or get the audiobook for free on Amazon to learn the juicy detailsIntroductionThe Daily Stoic is an original translation of selected writings of several Stoic philosophers, including Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Musonius Rufus, and Zeno. It aims to teach about personal growth, life management, and mindfulness.The Daily Stoic is intended to be read one page per day. Each page features a quote from a Stoic philosopher and Ryan Holiday's commentary. It is organized into themes that cover the twelve months of the year."A perfect book to read every morning. The lessons are short and sweet, and get you into the right mindset for the day.” - Arnold SchwarzeneggerAbout Ryan HolidayRyan Holiday is an American marketer and author. Holiday dropped out of college at 19 to apprentice under Robert Greene, the author of The 48 Laws of Power. Holiday became the marketing director for American Apparel and founded a creative agency called Brass Check. Brass Check has advised companies like Google, and authors like Neil Strauss, Tony Robbins, and Tim Ferriss. Holiday is also a media columnist and editor-at-large for the New York Observer. He has written 10 books including Ego is The Enemy, The Obstacle Is the Way, Stillness Is the Key, and Discipline Is Destiny. They have collectively sold millions of copies.StoryShot #1: There Are Three Stoic InterestsStoics were interested in only three aspects of philosophy:Logic: Logic involves the study of reason and argument. It involves understanding how to form valid conclusions based on evidence and reasoning. The Stoics believed that sound logic was key to a virtuous and fulfilling life.Physics: Physics involves the study of the natural world and the laws governing its existence. It involves understanding how the universe works and how different phenomena are connected. Stoics saw physics as a key area of study for gaining insight into the nature of the world.Ethics: Ethics involves the study of moral principles and how to live a good life. It...

Which is more effective: theories or practice? Should kings study philosophy? These are the questions that Musonius Rufus examines in the second half of his lesser known Stoic fragments, read today as part two of our Musonius Rufus reading series. You can listen to part one here: https://wondery.com/shows/the-daily-stoic/episode/11074-musonius-rufus-stoic-fragments-pt-1/ Check out “That One Should Disdain Hardships” at the Painted Porch.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

Stoikern Musonius Rufus om respekt.Swish: 12 33 76 18 06https://open.spotify.com/show/3UouhPb4NyE3HnNielcqli?si=54ee83b8a1d54d85Stötta Öppet sinne på Patreon https://www.patreon.com/oppetsinneInstagram https://www.instagram.com/pauldelvalle/?hl=svYoutube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAQXDkNpHStIp_AWv--DoLA Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode comes out for free on 10/23/22. Today's episode features two sections from the lesser known Musonius Rufus Stoic Fragments: That Man Is Born With An Inclination Toward Virtue and That Women Too Should Study Philosophy. Pick up a copy of That One Should Disdain Hardships: The Teachings of a Roman Stoic by Musonius Rufus at the Painted Porch Bookshop.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail

Set before your eyes every day death and exile and everything else that looks terrible, especially death. Then you will never have any mean thought or be too keen on anything. (Ench 21) That's an interesting list: death, exile, and everything else that looks terrible. We can all relate to death and other things that look terrible. However, there is no modern equivalent to Roman exile. To full appreciate the inclusion of exile in this list, we need to understand that exile was a form of capital punishment under Roman law. It was an alternative to the death penalty. Sometimes, a person was allowed to choose exile instead of being put to death. That was considered voluntary exile. In other cases, people were banished and involuntarily removed from Roman territories. Musonius Rufus, Epictetus, and Seneca were all exiled at different times. It was not uncommon for philosophers to be exiled because they were often considered a threat to those in power. Why? Because philosophy taught people to think for themselves and have an allegiance to truth instead of political authority. We don't fear exile today. Those with political power or far-reaching social influence may fear getting canceled in modern times. For some, that may be just as frightening as exile was in ancient times. Nevertheless, I suspect the list of terrible things in Encheiridion 21 would be different if Epictetus were teaching today. He might say: Set before your eyes every day death and social ostracism, pandemics, government lockdowns, inflation, high gas prices, exploding houses costs, recession, the war in Ukraine, mass immigration, mass shootings, high crime, racism, sexism, and everything else that looks terrible, especially death. Then you will never have any mean thought or be too keen on anything. The last sentence of Encheiridion 21 offers two extremes we can avoid if we practice setting death and everything else that looks terrible before our eyes daily. However, the phrase “mean thought” seemed a little vague to me, so I looked at every translation of the Encheiridion I have to see if they would provide some insight. Have any mean thought be too keen on anything A.A. Long Have any abject thought Yearn for anything W.A. Oldfather Harbour any mean thought Desire anything beyond due measure Robin Hard Entertain any abject thought Long for anything excessively Keith Seddon Think of anything mean Desire anything extravagantly George Long Have any abject thought Desire anything to excess Robert Dobbin Do you see the pattern here? In this passage, Epictetus is referring to aversions and desires. This lesson is another, among many, in which Epictetus reminds us that true freedom is internal. Freedom cannot be dependent on externals. When we fear external events and circumstances, we tend to blame others. We blame the other political party, another race of people, the opposite sex, those who have what we think we deserve, those with religious beliefs and lifestyles different from ours, etc. Those aversions tend to create abject and mean thoughts toward others. Likewise, those aversions typically entail excess desires for circumstances to be different. Before anyone concludes that Epictetus is preaching quietism here, look at the language. Epictetus did not instruct his student not to desire a change in circumstances. The English translations tell us not to be too keen on anything, yearn for anything, desire anything beyond measure, desire anything in excess, etc. As Stoics, we should desire and work for change leading toward a virtuous end. However, if your desire for change produces mean and abject thoughts toward those who disagree with you, you are a slave to your passions. You desire something excessively when you allow yourself to hate others you believe are preventing you from attaining it. Lesson 1 So, what is the message of Encheiridion 21? I think we can derive two important lessons from...

"Courage is knowledge of which things are to be chosen and avoided and neither." Diogenes Laertius, 7.92     In this episode of The Stoic Salon Podcast, we discuss how Stoicism defines courage and how courage is connected with the other virtues of wisdom, justice, and balance. If you are interested in learning more, join us in October 2022 for our Courageous Paths to Flourishing, Stoicon Women. Our theme this year is courage and we invite women and everyone to join us to learn what the Stoics might have to say about courage and to find and grow our own natural capacity for courage. Information: https://pathstoflourishing.org   Discussion points: 0:00 Welcome to The Stoic Salon Podcast and introducing guests Professor Chris Gill and Sukhraj Gill (see bio links below). 4:25 Please subscribe, follow, support. Email hello@kathrynkoromilas.com with any questions. 5:10 Welcome to the guests and first question about personal notions of courage. 7:25 Chris mentions awesome example of his dad saving a man. 9:50 Sukhraj offers her own examples of courage 11:40 Question about external validation or reward of courage, what does it look like? What about less visible types of courage? 18:22 Courage as restraint or choosing silence 21:24 Courage beyond the military style. Courage is more universal. Chris talks about Plato's dialogue Laches. 23:10 Chris mentions Euripides' Medea (rather stand in battle than have a baby) and Sukhraj talks about courage for women 28:53 Chris talks about courage and unity of the virtues, can't separate courage from the other virtues 31:10 Chris talks about the importance of facing death and its link with courage and Musonius Rufus quote 32:30 Courage as knowledge and Chris brings in personal examples 36:10 Sukhraj talks about the unity of the virtues 42:20 A quote from Seneca 42:50 Fear. Stoic vs Aristotelian view. Chris's definition of courage - knowing how to act correctly in facing fear. 50:15 A comment about women, fear, courage and a personal example 55:00 How to know how to be courageous in a world where there are so many causes to stand up for. About the guests: Christopher Gill: https://platosacademy.org/christopher... Christopher Gill is a scholar of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy (Emeritus Professor of Ancient Thought at the University of Exeter, UK). Much of his recent work has been centred on Stoic philosophy, including Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Books 1-6, translated with an introduction and commentary (2013), and the introduction and notes to the Oxford World's Classics translations (by Robin Hard) of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. Also, since 2012, He has been closely involved with Modern Stoicism, a collaborative project and organization designed to make Stoic principles accessible as life-guidance to a broad public audience. In that connection, He has given many talks at Stoicon conferences, including one in Athens in 2019, written many blog-posts for Stoicism Today, and worked with others on the handbook for the annual on-line Stoic Week course.   Sukhraj Gill Sukhraj lives in London and practises as a solicitor at a law firm. She was introduced to Stoicism through the Aurelius Foundation and enjoys reading around Stoic ideas and practice. In her free-time she enjoys yoga, voluntary work for a children's charity and reading. https://aureliusfoundation.com/founders/ About the host: Kathryn Koromilas (https://kathrynkoromilas.com/) is an author, educator, writing instructor, and a mindset and creativity coach. She uses ancient wisdom and writing practices to help her reignite creativity, reimagine purpose, and foster a thriving writing practice. Her interest in living an examined life has led her to be a lifelong student of philosophy and recently explore the philosophies of Stoicism and Buddhism. In 2017, she founded The Stoic Salon where she meets with like-minded and life-hearted souls to read and write with the Stoics. In 2021, she co-founded Paths to Flourishing with philosopher Brittany Polat to give a stronger voice to women in Stoicism. #Stoicism #KathrynKoromilas #courage

William B. Irvine is emeritus professor of philosophy at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, USA. He is the author of eight books that have been translated into more than twenty languages. His A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy played a key role in the Stoic renaissance that has taken place in recent years. His subsequent The Stoic Challenge: A Philosopher's Guide to Becoming Tougher, Calmer, and More Resilient provides a strategy for dealing, in proper Stoic manner, with the setbacks we experience in daily living. He is currently at work on a book about thinking critically, but with an open mind, in the age of the internet."Stoicism started in 300 B.C. in Athens. Zeno of Citium was the first Stoic. He created it. He put together components of some other then existing schools of philosophy and started his own school, but what we know primarily are the Roman Stoics. So this would be in the first century B.C. and the first century A.D. in Rome. And the four big names are Marcus Aurelius (who was also an emperor), Seneca (who was also a playright and the first century equivalent of a billionaire), an interestingly complex guy, and Epictetus (who was a successful head of a school of philosophy). Fourth name (less known, but a very important Roman Stoic) is Musonius Rufus, who was actually the teacher of Epictetus. And the interesting thing is, all four of them, you can pick up and start reading them, and you will very quickly sort of say – Oh, I see what they're doing. And I see why it's relevant to my life. And I see how it can be useful to my life.”www.williambirvine.comThe Stoic Challengewww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.orgPhoto credit: Lyndon French

"Stoicism started in 300 B.C. in Athens. Zeno of Citium was the first Stoic. He created it. He put together components of some other then existing schools of philosophy and started his own school, but what we know primarily are the Roman Stoics. So this would be in the first century B.C. and the first century A.D. in Rome. And the four big names are Marcus Aurelius (who was also an emperor), Seneca (who was also a playright and the first century equivalent of a billionaire), an interestingly complex guy, and Epictetus (who was a successful head of a school of philosophy). Fourth name (less known, but a very important Roman Stoic) is Musonius Rufus, who was actually the teacher of Epictetus. And the interesting thing is, all four of them, you can pick up and start reading them, and you will very quickly sort of say – Oh, I see what they're doing. And I see why it's relevant to my life. And I see how it can be useful to my life.”William B. Irvine is emeritus professor of philosophy at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, USA. He is the author of eight books that have been translated into more than twenty languages. His A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy played a key role in the Stoic renaissance that has taken place in recent years. His subsequent The Stoic Challenge: A Philosopher's Guide to Becoming Tougher, Calmer, and More Resilient provides a strategy for dealing, in proper Stoic manner, with the setbacks we experience in daily living. He is currently at work on a book about thinking critically, but with an open mind, in the age of the internet.www.williambirvine.comThe Stoic Challengewww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.org

William B. Irvine is emeritus professor of philosophy at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, USA. He is the author of eight books that have been translated into more than twenty languages. His A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy played a key role in the Stoic renaissance that has taken place in recent years. His subsequent The Stoic Challenge: A Philosopher's Guide to Becoming Tougher, Calmer, and More Resilient provides a strategy for dealing, in proper Stoic manner, with the setbacks we experience in daily living. He is currently at work on a book about thinking critically, but with an open mind, in the age of the internet."Stoicism started in 300 B.C. in Athens. Zeno of Citium was the first Stoic. He created it. He put together components of some other then existing schools of philosophy and started his own school, but what we know primarily are the Roman Stoics. So this would be in the first century B.C. and the first century A.D. in Rome. And the four big names are Marcus Aurelius (who was also an emperor), Seneca (who was also a playright and the first century equivalent of a billionaire), an interestingly complex guy, and Epictetus (who was a successful head of a school of philosophy). Fourth name (less known, but a very important Roman Stoic) is Musonius Rufus, who was actually the teacher of Epictetus. And the interesting thing is, all four of them, you can pick up and start reading them, and you will very quickly sort of say – Oh, I see what they're doing. And I see why it's relevant to my life. And I see how it can be useful to my life.”www.williambirvine.comThe Stoic Challengewww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.orgPhoto credit: Lyndon French

"Stoicism started in 300 B.C. in Athens. Zeno of Citium was the first Stoic. He created it. He put together components of some other then existing schools of philosophy and started his own school, but what we know primarily are the Roman Stoics. So this would be in the first century B.C. and the first century A.D. in Rome. And the four big names are Marcus Aurelius (who was also an emperor), Seneca (who was also a playright and the first century equivalent of a billionaire), an interestingly complex guy, and Epictetus (who was a successful head of a school of philosophy). Fourth name (less known, but a very important Roman Stoic) is Musonius Rufus, who was actually the teacher of Epictetus. And the interesting thing is, all four of them, you can pick up and start reading them, and you will very quickly sort of say – Oh, I see what they're doing. And I see why it's relevant to my life. And I see how it can be useful to my life.”William B. Irvine is emeritus professor of philosophy at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, USA. He is the author of eight books that have been translated into more than twenty languages. His A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy played a key role in the Stoic renaissance that has taken place in recent years. His subsequent The Stoic Challenge: A Philosopher's Guide to Becoming Tougher, Calmer, and More Resilient provides a strategy for dealing, in proper Stoic manner, with the setbacks we experience in daily living. He is currently at work on a book about thinking critically, but with an open mind, in the age of the internet.www.williambirvine.comThe Stoic Challengewww.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.org

What if the Roman Empire had experienced an Industrial Revolution? That's the compelling hook of Helen Dale's two-part novel, Kingdom of the Wicked: Rules and Order. Drawing on economics and legal history, Helen's story follows the arrest and trial of charismatic holy man Yeshua Ben Yusuf in the first century — but one with television, flying machines, cars, and genetic modification.In this episode of Faster, Please! — The Podcast, I dive into the fascinating world-building of Kingdom of the Wicked with Helen. Below is an edited transcript of our conversation.James Pethokoukis: Your Kingdom of the Wicked books raise such an interesting question: What would have happened if Jesus had emerged in a Roman Empire that had gone through an industrial revolution? What led you to ask this question and to pursue that answer through these books?Helen Dale: There is an essay in the back of book one, which is basically a set of notes about what I brought to the book when I was thinking. And that has been published elsewhere by the Cato Institute. I go into these questions. But the main one, the one that really occurred to me, was that I thought, what would happen if Jesus emerged in a modern society now, rather than the historic society he emerged in? I didn't think it would turn into something hippy-dippy like Jesus of Montreal. I thought it would turn into Waco or to the Peoples Temple.And that wasn't necessarily a function of the leader of the group being a bad person. Clearly Jim Jones was a very bad person, but the Waco story is actually much more complex and much messier and involves a militarized police force and tanks attacking the buildings and all of this kind of thing. But whatever happened with it, it was going to go badly and it was going to end in violence and there would be a showdown and a confrontation. And it would also take on, I thought — I didn't say this in the essay, but I thought at the time — it would take on a very American cast, because that is the way new religious movements tend to blow up or collapse in the United States.And so I was thinking this idea, through my head, “I would like to do a retelling of the Jesus story, but how do I do it? So it doesn't become naff and doesn't work?” And so what I decided to do was rather than bring Jesus forward and put him now, I would put us back to the time of Jesus — but take our technology and our knowledge, but always mediated by the fact that Roman civilization was different from modern civilization. Not in the sense of, you know, human beings have changed, all that kind of thing. We're all still the same primates that we have been for a couple of hundred thousand years or even longer. But in the sense that their underlying moral values and beliefs about the way the world should work were different, which I thought would have technological effects. The big technological effect in Kingdom of the Wicked is they're much better at the biosciences and the animal sciences. They're much weaker at communications. Our society has put all its effort into [communication]. Their society is much more likely to put it into medicine.To give you an idea: the use of opioids to relieve the pain of childbirth is Roman. And it was rediscovered by James Young Simpson at The University of Edinburgh. And he very famously used the formula of one of the Roman medical writers. So I made a very deliberate decision: This is a society that has not pursued technological advancement in the same way as us. It's also why their motor vehicles look like the Soviet-era ones with rotary engines. It's why their big aircraft are kind of like Antonovs, the big Ukrainian aircraft that we've all been reading about since the war has started in Ukraine. So, in some respects, there are bits of their culture that look more Soviet, or at least Britain in the 1950s. You know, sort of Clement Attlee's quite centralized, postwar settlement: health service, public good, kind of Soviet-style. Soft Soviet; it's not the nasty Stalinist sort, but like late-Soviet, so kind of Brezhnev and the last part of Khrushchev. A few people did say that. They were like, “Your military parades, they look like the Soviet Union.” Yes. That was deliberate. The effort has gone to medicine.It's an amazing bit of world-building. I was sort of astonished by the depth and the scale of it. Is this a genre that you had an interest in previously? Are there other works that you took inspiration from?There's a particular writer of speculative fiction I admire greatly. His name is S.M. Stirling, and he wrote a series of books. I haven't read every book he wrote, but he wrote a series of books called the Draka series. And it's speculative fiction. Once again, based on a point of departure where the colonists who finished up in South Africa finished up using the resources of South Africa, but for a range of reasons he sets out very carefully in his books, they avoid the resource curse, the classic economist's resource curse. And so certainly in terms of a popular writer, he was the one that I read and thought, “If I can do this as well as him, I will be very pleased.”I probably didn't read as much science fiction as most people would in high school, unless it was a literary author like Margaret Atwood or George Orwell. I just find bad writing rebarbative, and a lot of science fiction struggles with bad writing. So this is the problem, of course, that Douglas Adams famously identified. And one of the reasons why he wrote the Hitchhiker's books was to show that you could combine science fiction with good writing.In all good works of speculative fiction of the alt-history variant, there's an interesting jumping-off point. I would imagine you had a real “Eureka!” moment when you figured out what your jumping-off point would be to make this all plausible. Tell me about that.Well, yes. I did. Once I realized that points of departure hugely mattered, I then went and read people like Philip K. Dick's Man in the High Castle. The point of departure for him is the assassination of Roosevelt. I went and read SS-GB [by] Len Deighton, a great British spycraft writer but also a writer of speculative fiction. And in that case, Britain loses the Battle of Britain and Operation Sea Lion, the putative land invasion of the UK, is successful. And I really started to think about this and I'm going, "Okay, how are you going to do this point of departure? And how are you going to deal with certain economic issues?"I'm not an economist, but I used to practice in corporate finance so I've got the sort of numerical appreciation for economics. I can read an economics paper that's very math heavy because that's my skill based on working in corporate finance. And I knew, from corporate finance and from corporate law, that there are certain things that you just can't do, you can't achieve in terms of economic progress, unless you abolish slavery, basically. Very, very basic stuff like human labor power never loses its comparative advantage if you have just a market flooded with slaves. So you can have lots of good science technology, and an excellent legal system like the Romans did. And they reached that point economists talk about of takeoff, and it just never happens. Just, they miss. It doesn't quite happen.And in a number of civilizations, this has happened. It's happened with the Song dynasty in China. Steve Davies has written a lot about the Song dynasty, and they went through the same thing. They just get to that takeoff point and then just … fizzled out. And in China, it was to do with serfdom, basically. These are things that are very destructive to economic progress. So you have to come up with a society that decides that slavery is really shitty. And the only way to do that is for them to get hooked on the idea of using a substitute for human labor power. And that means I have to push technological innovation back to the middle republic.So what I've done for my point of departure is at the Siege of Syracuse [in 213-212 B.C.]. I have Archimedes surviving instead of being killed. He was actually doing mathematical doodles outside his classroom, according to the various records of Roman writers, and he was killed by some rampaging Roman soldier. And basically Marcellus, the general, had been told to capture Archimedes and all his students and all their kids. So you can see Operation Paperclip in the Roman mind. You can see the thinking: “Oh no, we want this fellow to be our DARPA guy.” That's just a brilliant leap. I love that.And that is the beginning of the point of departure. So you have the Romans hauling all these clever Greek scientists and their families off and taking them to Rome and basically doing a Roman version of DARPA. You know, Operation Paperclip, DARPA. You know, “Do all the science, and have complete freedom to do all the…” — because the Romans would've let them do it. I mean, this is the thing. The Romans are your classic “cashed up bogans,” as Australians call it. They had lots of money. They were willing to throw money at things like this and then really run with it.You really needed both. As you write at one point, you needed to create a kind of a “machine culture.” You sort of needed the science and innovation, but also the getting rid of slavery part of it. They really both work hand in hand.Yes. These two have to go together. I got commissioned to write a few articles in the British press, where I didn't get to mention the name of Kingdom of the Wicked or any of my novels or research for this, but where people were trying to argue that the British Empire made an enormous amount of money out of slavery. And then, as a subsidiary argument, trying to argue that that led to industrialization in the UK. … [So] I wrote a number of articles in the press just like going through why this was actually impossible. And I didn't use any fancy economic terminology or anything like that. There's just no point in it. But just explaining that, “No, no, no. This doesn't work like that. You might get individually wealthy people, like Crassus, who made a lot of his money from slavery.” (Although he also made a lot from insurance because he set up private fire brigades. That was one of the things that Crassus did: insurance premiums, because that's a Roman law invention, the concept of insurance.) And you get one of the Islamic leaders in Mali, King Musa. Same thing, slaves. And people try to argue that the entirety of their country's wealth depended on slavery. But what you get is you get individually very wealthy people, but you don't get any propagation of the wealth through the wider society, which is what industrialization produced in Britain and the Netherlands and then in Germany and then in America and elsewhere.So, yes, I had to work in the machine culture with the abolition of slavery. And the machines had to come first. If I did the abolition of slavery first, there was nothing there to feed it. One of the things that helped Britain was Somerset's case (and in Scotland, Knight and Wedderburn) saying, “The air of the air of England is too pure for a slave to breathe.” You know, that kind of thinking. But that was what I realized: It was the slavery issue. I couldn't solve the slavery issue unless I took the technological development back earlier than the period when the Roman Republic was flooded with slaves.The George Mason University economist Mark Koyama said if you had taken Adam Smith and brought him back to Rome, a lot of it would've seemed very recognizable, like a commercial, trading society. So I would assume that element was also pretty important in that world-building. You had something to work with there.Yes. I'd read some Stoic stuff because I did a classics degree, so of course that means you have to be able to read in Latin. But I'd never really taken that much of an interest in it. My interest tended to be in the literature: Virgil and Apuleius and the people who wrote novels. And then the interest in law, I always had an advantage, particularly as a Scots lawyer because Scotland is a mixed system, that I could read all the Roman sources that they were drawing on in the original. It made me a better practitioner. But my first introduction to thinking seriously about stoicism and how it relates to commerce and thinking that commerce can actually be a good and honorable thing to do is actually in Adam Smith. Not in The Wealth of Nations, but in Moral Sentiments, where Adam Smith actually goes through and quotes a lot of the Roman Stoic writers — Musonius Rufus and Epictetus and people like that — where they talk about how it's possible to have something that's quite base, which is being greedy and wanting to have a lot of money, but realizing that in order to get your lot of money or to do really well for yourself, you actually have to be quite a decent person and not a s**t.And there were certain things that the Romans had applied this thinking to, like the samian with that beautiful red ceramic that you see, and it's uniform all through the Roman Empire because they were manufacturing it on a factory basis. And when you come across the factories, they look like these long, narrow buildings with high, well-lit windows. And you're just sort of sitting there going, “My goodness, somebody dumped Manchester in Italy.” This kind of thing. And so my introduction to that kind of Stoic thinking was actually via Adam Smith. And then I went back and read the material in the original and realized where Adam Smith was getting those arguments from. And that's when I thought, “Ah, right. Okay, now I've got my abolitionists.”This is, in large part, a book about law. So you had to create a believable legal system that did not exist, unlike, perhaps, the commercial nature of Rome. So how did you begin to work this from the ground up?All the substantive law used in the book is Roman, written by actual Roman jurists. But to be fair, this is not hard to do. This is a proper legal system. There are only two great law-giving civilizations in human history. The Romans were one of them; the English were the other. And so what I had to do was take substantive Roman law, use my knowledge of practicing in a mixed system that did resemble the ancient Roman system — so I used Scotland, where I'd lived and worked — and then [put] elements back into it that existed in antiquity that still exists in, say, France but are very foreign, particularly to common lawyers.I had lawyer friends who read both novels because obviously it appeals. “You have a courtroom drama?” A courtroom drama appeals to lawyers. These are the kind of books, particularly if it's written by another lawyer. So you do things like get the laws of evidence right and stuff like that. I know there are lawyers who cannot watch The Wire, for example, because it gets the laws of evidence (in the US, in this case) wrong. And they just finish up throwing shoes at the television because they get really annoyed about getting it wrong.What I did was I took great care to get the laws of evidence right, and to make sure that I didn't use common law rules of evidence. For example, the Romans didn't have a rule against hearsay. So you'll notice that there's all this hearsay in the trial. But you'll also notice a mechanism. Pilate's very good at sorting out what's just gossip and what is likely to have substantive truth to it. So that's a classic borrowing from Roman law, because they didn't have the rule against hearsay. That's a common law rule. I also use corroboration a lot. Corroboration is very important in Roman law, and it's also very important in Scots law. And it's basically a two-witness rule.And I did things, once again, to show the sort of cultural differences between the two great legal systems. Cornelius, the Roman equivalent of the principal crown prosecutor. Cornelius is that character, and he's obsessed with getting a confession. Obsessed. And that is deeply Roman. The Roman lawyers going back to antiquity called a confession the “Queen of Proofs.” And of course, if confessions are just the most wonderful thing, then it's just so tempting to beat the snot out of the accused and get your bloody confession. Job done. The topic of the Industrial Revolution has been a frequent one in my writings and podcasts. And one big difference between our Industrial Revolution and the one you posit in the book is that there was a lot of competition in Europe. You had a lot of countries, and there was an incentive to permit disruptive innovation — where in the past, the proponents of the status quo had the advantage. But at some point countries realized, “Oh, both for commerce and military reasons, we need to become more technologically advanced. So we're going to allow inventors and entrepreneurs to come up with new ideas, even if it does alter that status quo.” But that's not the case with Rome. It was a powerful empire that I don't think really had any competitors, both in the real world and in your book.That and the chattel slavery is probably why it didn't finish up having an industrial revolution. And it's one of the reasons why I had to locate the innovation, it had to be in the military first, because the military was so intensely respected in Roman society. If you'd have got the Roman military leadership coming up with, say, gunpowder or explosives or that kind of thing, the response from everybody else would've been, “Good. We win. This is a good thing.” It had to come from the military, which is why you get that slightly Soviet look to it. There is a reason for that. The society is more prosperous because it's a free-market society. The Romans were a free-market society. All their laws were all sort of trade oriented, like English law. So that's one of those things where the two societies were just really similar. But in terms of technological innovation, I had to locate it in the army. It had to be the armed forces first.In your world, are there entrepreneurs? What does the business world look like?Well, I do try to show you people who are very commercially minded and very economically oriented. You've got the character of Pilate, the real historical figure, who is a traditional Tory lawyer, who has come up through all the traditional Toryism and his family's on the land and so on and so forth. So he's a Tory. But Linnaeus, who he went to law school with, who is the defense counsel for the Jesus character, Yeshua Ben Yusuf, is a Whig. And his mother was a freed slave, and his family are in business in commerce. They haven't bought the land.A lot of these books finished up on the cutting room floor, the world-building. And there is a piece that was published in a book called Shapers of Worlds: Volume II, which is a science-fiction anthology edited by a Canadian science-fiction author called Ed Willett. And one of the pieces that finished up on the cutting room floor and went into Shapers of Worlds is a description of Linnaeus's family background, which unfortunately was removed. You get Pilate's, but you don't get Linnaeus's. And Linnaeus's family background, his dad's the factory owner. The factory making cloth. I was annoyed with my publisher when they said, “This piece has to go,” and I did one of those snotty, foot-stamping, awful things. And so I was delighted when this Canadian publisher came to me and said, “Oh, can we have a piece of your writing for a science-fiction anthology?” And I thought, “Oh good. I get to publish the Linnaeus's dad story in Shapers of Worlds.”And I actually based Linnaeus's dad — the angel as he's referred to, Angelus, in the Kingdom of the Wicked books, and his personality is brought out very strongly — I actually based him on John Rylands. Manchester's John Rylands, the man who gave his name to the Rylands Library in Manchester. He was meant to be the portrait of the entrepreneurial, Manchester industrialist. And to this day, authors always have regrets, you don't always get to win the argument with your publisher or your editor, I am sorry that that background, that world-building was taken out of Kingdom of the Wicked and finished up having to be published elsewhere in an anthology. Because it provided that entrepreneurial story that you're talking about: the factory owner who is the self-made man, who endows libraries and technical schools, and trains apprentices, and has that sort of innovative quality that is described so beautifully in Matt Ridley's book, How Innovation Works, which is full of people like that. And this book as well, I've just bought: I've just bought Arts and Minds, which is about the Royal Society of Arts. So this is one of those authorial regrets: that the entrepreneur character wasn't properly fleshed out in the two published books, Kingdom of the Wicked book one and book two. And you have to get Shapers of Worlds if you want to find out about Linnaeus's industrialist dad.Is this a world you'd want to live in?Not for me, no. I mean, I'm a classically trained lawyer. So classics first, then law. And I made it a society that works. You know, I don't write dystopias. I have a great deal of admiration for Margaret Atwood and George Orwell, who are the two greatest writers of dystopias, in my view, in contemporary, and not just contemporary fiction, probably going back over a couple of hundred years. Those two have really got it, when it comes to this vision of horror. You know, the boot stamping on the human face forever. I greatly admire their skill, but those are not the books I write. So the society I wrote about in Kingdom of the Wicked is a society that works.But one of the things I deliberately did with the Yeshua Ben Yusuf character and what were his early Christian followers, and the reason I've taken so much time to flesh them out as real characters and believable people [is] because the values that Christianity has given to the West were often absent in the Roman world. They just didn't think that way. They thought about things differently. Now some of those Christian values were pretty horrible. It's fairly clear that the Romans were right about homosexuality and abortion, and the Christians were wrong. That kind of thing. That's where they were more liberal. But, you will have noticed, I don't turn the book into Gattaca. I try to keep this in the background because obviously someone else has written Gattaca. It's an excellent film. It's very thought provoking. I didn't want to do that again. It's kept in the background, but it is obvious — you don't even really need to read between the lines — that this is a society that engages in eugenics. You notice that all the Roman families have three children or two children, and there's always a mix of sexes. You never have all boys or all girls. You know what they're doing. They're doing sex-selective abortions, like upper-class Indians and Chinese people do now. You've now dealt with the problem of not enough girls among those posh people, but they still want a mixture of the two. You notice that the Romans have got irritatingly perfect teeth and their health is all very good. And people mock Cyler, one of the characters, because his teeth haven't been fixed. He's got what in Britain get called NHS teeth. He hasn't got straightened teeth, because he genuinely comes from a really, really poor background. I have put that in there deliberately to foil those values off each other, to try to show what a world would look like where there are certain values that will just never come to the fore.And as you mentioned, industry: how those values also might influence which areas technology might focus on, which I think is a great point.I did that quite deliberately. There is a scene in the first book in Kingdom of the Wicked where Linnaeus — who's the Whig, the nice Whig, the lovely Whig who believes in civil rights and justice and starts sounding awfully Martin Luther King-ish at various points, and that kind of thing; he's the most likable form of progressive, Stoic Roman ideas — and when he encounters a child that the parents have kept alive, a disabled child, which in his society would just be put down at birth like Peter Singer, they have Peter Singer laws, he's horrified. And he doesn't even know if it's human.I actually wrote a piece about this couple of years ago for Law & Liberty, for Liberty Fund. I did find that people wanted to live in this sort of society. And I just sort of thought, “Hmm, there are a lot more people out there who clearly agree with things like eugenics, Peter Singer laws, a society that has absolutely no welfare state. None.” There are people who clearly find that kind of society attractive. And also the authoritarianism, the Soviet-style veneration of the military. A lot of people clearly quite like that. And clearly like that it's a very orderly society where there are lots of rules and everybody knows where they stand. But even when the state is really, really very powerful.I deliberately put a scene in there, for example, where Pilate's expectorating about compulsory vaccinations — because he's a Roman and he thinks compulsory vaccinations save lives and he doesn't give a s**t about your bodily integrity. I did try to leave lots of Easter eggs, to use a gaming expression, in there to make it clear that this is a society that's a bit Gattaca-ish. I did that for a reason.I don't know if there's a sequel in mind, but do you think that this world eventually sort of Christianizes? And if this is what the world looks like 2000 years ago, what would that world look like today?I haven't thought of the answer to the first one. I must admit. I don't really know the answer to that. But in the second one, I did discuss this in quite a bit of detail with my then partner. And she said, “I honestly think that with that sort of aggressiveness and militarism, they will finish up conquering the planet. And then it'll start looking like a not-nice version of Star Trek. It won't be the Federation. It will be much more likely to be Khan and the Klingons and they'll start looking really, really Klingon basically.” That was her comment at the time.Like a more militaristic version of Star Trek.Yeah. But sort of very militarized and not the Prime Directive or any of that. Obviously Star Trek is very much an American conception of Americans in space. My Romans in space would look much more like the Centauri out of Babylon 5 or the Klingons in Star Trek. They would be much more aggressive and they'd be a lot more ambiguous…I don't know how much of a Star Trek fan you are, but of course there's the mirror universe, which kind of looks like that. We have the evil Kirk and the evil Spock. There's still advance, but there's like a Praetorian Guard for the captain and…All of that. Yes. I hadn't really thought about the first question, but the second question I thought, “Yeah, if this persists into the future, imagining a hypothetical future, then I think you are going to be dealing with people who are really, really quite scary.”Apparently you're not working on a sequel to this book, but what are you working on? Another book?Yes. I'm actually being pursued at the moment by a British publisher, who I won't drop into it because otherwise, if I say the name, then I will never, never be forgiven. And then they will insist on me writing a book. I'm never going to be the world's most super productive novelist. I think that I may finish up in my life writing maybe another two. I look at Stephen King. That man writes a door stopper of a book every time he sits down to have a hot meal. Incredible. How does he do it? I'm not that person.Helen, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.Thank you very much for having me. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fasterplease.substack.com/subscribe

Die Stoa zählt zu den wichtigsten philosophischen Schulen der Antike. Aktuell erlebt diese Denkrichtung im kalifornischen Silicon Valley aber auch in Europa eine erstaunliche Renaissance und Popularität. Möglicherweise auch deswegen, weil viele im Stoizismus eine Anleitung zum gelassenen Umgang mit Krisen sehen. In der heutigen Folge von „Der Pudel und der Kern“ diskutieren Albert und Jan, wie die stoischen Lehren von Philosophen wie Zenon von Kition, Seneca, Marc Aurel oder Musonius Rufus uns zu mehr innerer Ruhe im Umgang mit widrigen Umständen führen können.

Abhärtung, das Gewöhnen an körperliche und seelische Entbehrungen ist ein wichtiger Bestandteil von antikem Stoizismus. Welche Bedeutung kann Abhärtung für uns heute haben? Was sagt Musonius Rufus dazu?

Abhärtung, das Gewöhnen an körperliche und seelische Entbehrungen ist ein wichtiger Bestandteil von antikem Stoizismus. Welche Bedeutung kann Abhärtung für uns heute haben? Was sagt Musonius Rufus dazu?

“He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.” ~ Lao Tzu   The ancient philosopher, teacher and Stoic, Epictetus said, “Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: Some things are within our control, and some things are not.” It takes wisdom and the habit of thoughtful effort to discern the difference.  The things that are within our control are simple and few, but powerful! Our own opinions and behaviors (basically, our responses to outside events and stimuli) Our aspirations and desires The things that repel us He goes on to say, “It is only after you have faced up to this fundamental rule and learned to distinguish between what you can and can't control that inner tranquility, and outer effectiveness become possible.” We are all likely, familiar with the AA Serenity Prayer – “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Serenity, courage and wisdom; three powerful and effective self-mastery tools we can all learn to use to sharpen and apply to every area of our lives.  If you a were person who could practice living this prayer from moment to moment to moment, you would be an extraordinarily wise and happy person who has attained self-mastery.  Whether you want to lose weight, learn to control you tongue, or even start a business, self-mastery is the key. Believe me, I know this is no easy feat!  Thomas a Kempis asks, “Who is forced to struggle more than he who tries to master himself?”  And then he goes on to assert, “This ought to be our purpose, then: to conquer self, to become stronger each day, to advance in virtue.” I mentioned the ancient stoics, men like Epictetus, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius.  These extraordinary human beings grasped this concept and lived it in their daily lives.  They knew and understood what it meant to struggle.  They were warriors of the mind (vs. librarians of the mind).  They were super engaged in their society and dealt with struggles and challenges beyond what most of us have to face. The Stoic, Epictetus was born a slave, and had his leg broken by his master. He remained crippled for life, and obtained his freedom somewhere in his twenties or thirties, after the death of Nero.  He acquired a passion for philosophy and received permission from his master to study under the esteemed Roman philosopher Musonius Rufus. Epictetus lived a life of great simplicity and eventually founded a Greek school of philosophy.  It was a strenuous curriculum, more like a gymnasium of the mind than an exercise in rhetorical studies.  He was a huge influence on Marcus Aurelius, who went on to become the emperor of Rome, and a highly influential Stoic philosopher in his own right.  During turbulent times, Aurelius ruled with wisdom and justice.  His philosophical work “Meditations' is still studied by philosophers all over the world today. Another Stoic of the time, Seneca, was a Roman statesman, playwright, and adviser to the Roman emperor, Nero. What significance do these ancient, outdated sages and Stoics have to do with you and me today? All three were deeply involved as leaders in their community and culture.  They experienced, felt, and understood the day-to-day outer struggles and challenges of dealing with difficult people and situations, as well as the inner battles and opposition to achieving personal self-mastery.  And, all three understood the importance of living in harmony and balance with Nature.  They lived what they taught. Epictetus and Seneca were banished from Rome for their influential teachings and beliefs.  And Seneca was later forced by Nero to take his own life.  Hard core stuff. Why do we want to study and emulate them?  They personally grasped, and taught the timeless secrets of Self-Mastery that you and I can apply to live a richer, happier, more fulfilling life, day to day to day.  They were all intently pursuing becoming the best version of themselves. Today we are just scratching the surface of attaining the virtue of self-mastery to cultivate in our personal Garden of Well-being.  There is so much more we will cover in upcoming episodes that will be helpful in our practices.  Such as, developing habits that will help us overcome the obstacles that get in the way of our personal best. In today's meditation, keep in mind, we want to focus on becoming a Warrior of the mind vs. a Librarian of the mind.  This means approach it with an earnestness and intensity of a warrior, who will put these principles into practice, not just a student of philosophy.

This week we summarize the known teachings of Musonius Rufus, the teacher of Epictetus!

This week Musonius Rufus shares his idea that all humans are capable of virtue and that we all seek it. It is the one thing he claims, that we all claim to possess even if we've never studied philosophy. Go here to read the translation for yourself: https://archive.org/details/MUSONIUSRUFUSSTOICFRAGMENTS

In dieser Folge des Stoiker-Podcast diskutieren Markus, Ralph und Tobias zusammen mit Anne Gehrmann über die Rolle der Frauen im Stoizismus. Die Podcaster unternehmen zunächst einen kurzen Streifzug durch die Geschichte der Stoa und gehen insbesondere auf das Leben und Wirken von Porcia Cato ein, aber auch auf wirkmächtige Frauen in der Philosophie, die den Stoizismus rezipiert haben. Anschließend erläutert Anne Gerhmann die stoische Vorstellung von der natürlichen Gleichheit der Geschlechter und streicht die Modernität des stoischen Denkens heraus. Aber gibt es auch einen besonderen Mehrwert des Stoizismus für Frauen? Dieser Frage steht im Zentrum der weiteren Überlegungen und wird von den dreien zusammen mit Anne Gehrmann ausführlich beantwortet. Welche Frage hast du zum Podcast oder zum Stoizismus? Stelle uns deine Frage direkt an mail@stoikerpodcast.de, als Kommentar unter unsere youtube-Videos oder direkt an uns persönlich. Themen 00:00 Intro 00:47 Willkommen 01:30 Vorstellung Anne Gehrmann 04:04 Gab es Stoikerinnen? 06:36 Porcia Cato (Tochter von Cato) 09:20 Frauen sind genauso fähig zur Philosophie 11:25 Musonius Rufus über Frauen und Philosophie 13:35 Emotionstheorie und Klischees 15:15 Philosophinnen im 18. Jh. 16:40 Marry Wollstonecraft & Elizabeth Carter 20:10 Stoizismus in der Moderne 20:30 Stoicon-X Women 21:55 Sharon Lebell 24:30 Was macht die Stoicon-X Women so besonders? 26:20 Wo hilft Stoizismus Frauen besonders? 27:00 Sexismus am Arbeitsplatz 29:35 Über die Wut Wenn ihr Kontakt zu Anne Gehrmann aufnehmen wollt, schreibt ihr eine Mail an anne@deinestoa.de. Die Stoicon-x Women 2021 - Practical Paths to Flourishing - Mindfulness, Creativity, and Care findet ihr unter https://pathstoflourishing.org/ Die Buchempfehlungen aus dieser Folge findest du hier: http://www.stoikerpodcast.de/buecher/ Wenn dir gefällt, was wir tun, spendiere uns einen Kaffee oder Tee: http://www.stoikerpodcast.de/spenden/ Schreibe uns deine Frage direkt an mail@stoikerpodcast.de Intro- und Outro-Musik von Tobias Rueß Mehr über uns auf http://www.stoikerpodcast.de

Musonius Rufus betont es explizit: ja, es ist in Ordnung, wenn wir das Hauptaugenmerk auf die Abhärtung unserer Seele richten, aber selbst der stoische Weise braucht einen Körper um zu leben und Gutes in der Welt zu bewirken. Es besteht also quasi eine stoische Verpflichtung, sich auch um seinen Körper zu kümmern.

Musonius Rufus betont es explizit: ja, es ist in Ordnung, wenn wir das Hauptaugenmerk auf die Abhärtung unserer Seele richten, aber selbst der stoische Weise braucht einen Körper um zu leben und Gutes in der Welt zu bewirken. Es besteht also quasi eine stoische Verpflichtung, sich auch um seinen Körper zu kümmern.

If I were a nightingale, I would perform the work of a nightingale, and if I were a swan, that of a swan. But as it is, I am a rational being, and I must sing the praise of God. This is my work, and I accomplish it, and I will never abandon my post for as long as it is granted to me to remain in it; and I invite all of you to join me in this same song. (Discourses 1.16.20-21) Epictetus is typically considered the most religious of the Roman Stoics. As such, some attempt to portray him as an outlier among the Stoics. However, as A.A. Long points out, In his conception of divine providence, creativity, and rationality, Epictetus is completely in line with the general Stoic tradition. His distinctiveness, in what I have discussed so far, extends mainly to the enthusiasm with which he commends obedience to God and to the warmth he infuses in his expressions of God's concern for human beings.[1] We find this same “notable religious sensibility” in the philosophy of Seneca, Musonius Rufus, and Marcus Aurelius,[2] and, as A.A. Long further notes, it is “broadly in line with traditional Stoicism.”[3] To a large degree, these religious sentiments result from the inherent “structural resemblance” between the rationality of humans and that of the divine logos, which allows for a “certain degree of personalistic theism in thinking and speaking about god”[4] in Stoicism. We see this language used frequently by Epictetus. Likewise, over the history of the Stoa, God will “assume more and more spiritual and personal traits” and “religiousness will tend to permeate” Stoicism and move it toward theism without fully arriving there.[5] Nevertheless, it is essential to balance the religious sentiments of Epictetus with the realization that he never claimed nor adhered to any form of divine revelation; neither did he express a need for religious faith, in the forms those concepts are commonly understood today. For Epictetus, to follow God means “we should pay attention to the God in us, i.e. to our reason, in order to determine what is the right thing for us, namely how we are to live in accordance with nature.”[6] As Andrew Mason, Teaching Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, points out in the introduction of a beautiful little volume on The Philosophy of Epictetus: Talk of God's seeing, helping, guiding, speaking to and punishing us, and of God as our father, can be explained in terms either of God's overall providence, or of our inner god or daemon, our reason, which is a fragment of the cosmic deity. Likewise prayer, for Epictetus, is not an appeal for intervention by an external God, but rather an admonition to oneself. Epictetus does differ from the early Stoics in the extent to which he uses personalistic language about God; this may be explained partly by his personal outlook, but also by the purpose of the Discourses, in the context of which God's providence and his status as an ethical example are more important than the cosmological aspects of him which played an important part in early Stoicism.[7] A.A. Long sums up the difference between Epictetus and his predecessors in the Stoa by arguing he “proceeds from rather than to God.”[8] He points out, “Epictetus' favourite formula for the goal of human life is ‘to follow the gods' (Discourses1.12.5; 1.30.4; 4.7.20).”[9] The earlier Stoics used oikeiosis as the starting point to explain Stoic ethical theory; they taught theology last. Epictetus reversed that approach and made theology the starting point of ethics. Epictetus builds his ethical theory and practice on what Long calls THEONOMIC FOUNDATIONS.[10] Epictetus argues we are born with an innate moral sense (preconception) of the good and the divine.[11] Because each of us possesses a fragment of divine Reason (logos) as our guiding principle, we are innately capable of understanding and living according to the laws of God that are written in Nature. Thus, Epictetus' instruction to ‘follow God' is equivalent to ‘li...

Optimize your Stoicism: https://www.optimize.me/missions/stoicism Get all the wisdom from the best Stoicism books out there— in less time (!) — with a collection of PhilosophersNotes distilling the Big Ideas and an Optimal Living 101 class highlighting the absolute best of the best. All 100% free. Forever. No credit card required. No strings attached. Period. → https://www.optimize.me/ You'll learn the Big Ideas from: - The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman: https://www.optimize.me/pn/the-daily-stoic-ryan-holiday-stephen-hanselman - Meditations by Marcus Aurelius: https://www.optimize.me/pn/meditations-marcus-aurelius - The Enchiridion by Epictetus: https://www.optimize.me/pn/the-enchiridion-epictetus - Discourses by Epictetus: https://www.optimize.me/pn/discourses-epictetus - Letters from a Stoic by Seneca: https://www.optimize.me/pn/letters-from-a-stoic-seneca - On the Shortness of Life by Seneca: https://www.optimize.me/pn/on-the-shortness-of-life-seneca - Musonius Rufus by Cynthia Arrieu-King and William Irvine: https://www.optimize.me/pn/musonius-rufus-musonius-rufus-cynthia-arrieu-king-william-irvine - How to Think Like a Roman Emperor by Donald Robertson: https://www.optimize.me/pn/how-to-think-like-a-roman-emperor-donald-robertson - The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday: https://www.optimize.me/pn/the-obstacle-is-the-way-ryan-holiday - The Inner Citadel by Pierre Hadot: https://www.optimize.me/pn/the-inner-citadel-pierre-hadot - How to Be Free by Epictetus and A.A. Long: https://www.optimize.me/pn/how-to-be-free-epictetus-a-long - How to Be a Stoic by Massimo Pigliucci: https://www.optimize.me/pn/how-to-be-a-stoic-massimo-pigliucci - The Practicing Stoic by Ward Farnsworth: https://www.optimize.me/pn/the-practicing-stoic-ward-farnsworth - The Philosophy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy by Donald Robertson: https://www.optimize.me/pn/the-philosophy-of-cognitive-behavioural-therapy-donald-robertson - The Stoic Challenge by William Irvine: https://www.optimize.me/pn/the-stoic-challenge-william-irvine - Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot by James Stockdale: https://www.optimize.me/pn/thoughts-of-a-philosophical-fighter-pilot-james-stockdale - Courage Under Fire by James Stockdale: https://www.optimize.me/pn/courage-under-fire-james-stockdale - Ego Is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday: https://www.optimize.me/pn/ego-is-the-enemy-ryan-holiday - Stillness Is the Key by Ryan Holiday: https://www.optimize.me/pn/stillness-is-the-key-ryan-holiday - A Guide to the Good Life by William Irvine: https://www.optimize.me/pn/a-guide-to-the-good-life-william-irvine - The Stoic Art of Living by Tom Morris: https://www.optimize.me/pn/the-stoic-art-of-living-tom-morris - Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl: https://www.optimize.me/pn/mans-search-for-meaning-viktor-frankl - Plato's Lemonade Stand by Tom Morris: https://www.optimize.me/pn/platos-lemonade-stand-tom-morris - Superheroes and Philosophy by Matt Morris and Tom Morris: https://www.optimize.me/pn/superheroes-and-philosophy-matt-morris-tom-morris Other Resources Noted in this video: The Daily Stoic: https://dailystoic.com/ The Daily Dad: https://dailydad.com/ Plus, with your (FREE!) Optimize wisdom membership, you'll get instant access to 600+ PhilosophersNotes, 50+ Optimal Living 101 classes, and 1,000+ Optimize +1s, all to help you Optimize every aspect of your life with more wisdom in less time. So… What do YOU want to Optimize today? Ancient Wisdom Modern Science Mental Toughness Habits Sleep Stoicism Buddhism Purpose Leadership Focus Goal Setting Productivity Energy Peak Performance Meditation Nutrition Weight Loss Fitness Breathing Prosperity Creativity Learning Self-Image Willpower Sports Business Relationships Parenting Public Speaking Conquer Cancer Conquer Anxiety Conquer Depression Conquer Perfectionism Conquer Procrastination Conquer Digital Addiction

"Stoics were the greatest psychologists that ever existed" - William B. Irvine. Interview to philosophy professor, best-selling author, and stoic philosopher William B. Irvine about the Stoic Way, that is to say, the path to a Stoic Joy, inner happiness, and ataraxia. The conversation holds the power of stoicism as one of the most effective tools out there to deal with negative emotions. Additionally, we dissect powerful concepts, strategies and principles to overcome any setback that we can experience daily, attain tranquillity and inner joy, find true greatness and freedom, and live a virtuous life. "Take what you have and make the most out of it" In this episode, William B. Irvine, an outlier, explores stoicism's deep and most profound roots and brings a Stoic's best traits, virtues, and precepts. He also shares his most important teachings, the learning writing of some of his books, and essential lessons from the greatest stoics. "You have so much" - William B. Irvine "I sometimes ask myself: 'What would Seneca do?'" Index of contents Life milestones. Finding stoicism by accident. Adapting stoicism as a living philosophy. Personal hacks. Common misconceptions. Enlightenment and the stoic way. A book for a good life. The Stoic challenge. Thoughts on suicide and the stoic way. On weakening or erasing desire. Actionable and philosophical tools. Attaining joy in the modern world. Most significant lessons from the biggest stoics. Greatest influences. Modern inspiration. The book. Proud thing. Ideal counsellor team. Advice for anxiety and setbacks. Final message. "The truth is a complex thing" Podcast show-notes William's website. All his books. Last Time Meditation. Negative Visualization. Musonius Rufus. "Keep your stoic duty up until death" - William B. Irvine

1. How the New Age Has Crept Into the Church a. Sentimentalism - David Hume wrote in "A Treatise of Human Nature": "Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them." i. This will give way to Hedonism, and nihilism. b. Concupiscence - I do not subscribe to the idea that Concupiscence is merely a strong desire. No but it is the being ruled by the strong desire. i. Colossians 3:5 (KJV) 5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: ii. Early Church teaching: 1) Likewise, Rufus tells us that “the man who wants to live a godly life must not only learn the lessons which pertain to virtue but train himself to follow them eagerly and rigorously.” The philosopher has to train both his soul and his body by enduring hardships and not giving into pleasures but instead we should “accustom ourselves to cold, heat, thirst, hunger, scarcity of food, hardness of bed, abstaining from pleasures, and enduing pains.” “The person who is practicing to become a philosopher must seek to overcome himself so we won't welcome pleasure and avoid pain, so that he won't love living and fear death, and in the case of money, he won't honor receiving over giving.” “The man who wants to be good must not only learn the lessons which pertain to virtue but also train himself to follow them eagerly and rigorously.” -Musonius Rufus, Lectures, Book 6, pp. 36-37. 2) “Carnal concupiscence must not be ascribed to marriage; it is only to be tolerated in marriage. It is not a good which comes out of the essence of marriage, but an evil which is the accident of original sin.” - St Augustine, “On Marriage and Concupiscence,” In the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Volume 5, translated by Rev CL Cornish (Boston: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994, first published 1887), 271, chapter 19. 3) “Intercourse of marriage for the sake of begetting children has no fault, and intercourse in the marital bed to satisfy lust has but venial fault, but intercourse in adultery or fornication is a deadly fault.” - St Augustine, “On the Good of Marriage,” 401-402, chapter 6. c. Relationship Theology i. Nowhere in biblical scripture does it say "Have a personal relationship with Jesus" 1) This is an assumption based on the servant/master relationship explained. But the Relationship theology builds more on top of the servant/master relationship then what scripture outlines. d. Watered Down i. How does the message get watered down? 1) Personal emotions: The sermon become more about addressing personal problems and emotions then about scriptural teachings. There is an application for this kind of thing but most sermons today are more about psychological counseling then application of scripture to a psychological problem or just scripture itself. e. Conviction i. We do not hold people accountable because it "hurts their feelings" 1) Hurt feelings is no justification for enforcement of biblical teachings. We have men marrying divorced women whose ex-husband (which are still their husband according the John 4) and we say nothing about it. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/kingsmen/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/kingsmen/support

In dieser ersten Folge des Stoiker-Podcast sprechen Markus, Ralph und Tobias darüber, was sie zum Stoizismus gebracht hat und was sie motiviert einen Podcast über eine Philosophie ins Leben zu rufen, die mehr als 2000 Jahre alt ist. Hierbei betonen sie den lebenspraktischen Charakter der Stoa, insbesondere bei ihren späten römischen Vertretern Seneca, Epiktet, Musonius Rufus und Marc-Aurel. Sie weisen darauf hin, dass die Stoiker nicht nur das Ziel hatten, die Menschen besser zu verstehen, sondern ihnen auch handfeste Ratschläge zu geben, um ihr Leben zu verbessern – zum Beispiel im Umgang mit herausfordernden Situationen, die Angst, Leid oder Ärger verursachen. Außerdem werden die historischen Wurzeln der Philosophie der Lebenskunst in der Antike erläutert und die Stellung, die die Stoiker darin einnehmen. Ein besonderes Augenmerk legen Markus, Ralph und Tobias auf die historische Entstehung und Entwicklung des Stoizismus. Hierfür nehmen sie Bezug auf die historischen Quellen, aber auch auf einige spannenden Anekdoten rund um Stoiker selbst, zum Beispiel ihrem Gründer Zenon von Kition. --- Die Buchempfehlungen aus dieser Folge findest du hier: http://www.stoikerpodcast.de/buecher/ Wenn dir gefällt, was wir tun, spendiere uns einen Kaffee oder Tee: http://www.stoikerpodcast.de/spenden/ Intro- und Outro-Musik von Tobias Rueß Mehr über uns auf http://www.stoikerpodcast.de

Rob and Massimo talk to Gretchen Reydams-Schils, a Classics scholar and the author of the introduction to "That One Should Disdain Hardships," a collection of the writings of the Roman Stoic Musonius Rufus.

“There was a famous exchange between the Stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus and the King of Syria. The king traveled to ask Musonius, ‘Is it appropriate for a leader to study philosophy?'”Ryan explains why leaders must study philosophy and constantly be striving to get better.The Daily Stoic Leadership Challenge is a masterclass in leadership with the cadence and rigor of a boot camp. It is also a live course, which means all participants will join the course together and move through together at the same pace to their own version of the same goal—to be a great leader. Registration is now officially open over at dailystoic.com/leadershipchallenge. Registration will close on Saturday, July 31st at midnight CST.Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In his article Leo Zeballos ponders “4 Stoic Ideas That Are Changing The Way I Think and Live“. This one made me really think through some things and I wanted to share it with you. Stoic Philosophy Stoicism has been a common thread though some of history's great leaders. It has been practiced by Kings, presidents, artists, writers and entrepreneurs. Marcus Aurelius. Frederick the Great, Montaigne, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Theodore Roosevelt, General James Mattis, —just to name a few—were all influenced by Stoic philosophy. From The Daily Stoic I mentioned The Daily Stoic in my ramblings and I would highly encourage you to dig deep into this website for a full back history of Stoic Philosophy and the stories of the famous philosophers who we now utilize in our meditations. 366 Meditations Book A great book that I have personally used over the years is 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living. The Daily Stoic offers 366 days of Stoic insights and exercises, featuring all-new translations from the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the playwright Seneca, or slave-turned-philosopher Epictetus, as well as lesser-known luminaries like Zeno, Cleanthes, and Musonius Rufus. Every day of the year you'll find one of their pithy, powerful quotations, as well as historical anecdotes, provocative commentary, and a helpful glossary of Greek terms. By following these teachings over the course of a year (and, indeed, for years to come) you'll find the serenity, self-knowledge, and resilience you need to live well. 4 Stoic Ideas That Are Changing The Way I Think and Live by Leo Zeballos Full Article Link Our Judgments About Reality Are More Harmful than Reality Itself. Be conscious of your perceptions and judgments about a negative situation. Don't force your perceptions to be positive, but tyr to make them 15% less negative than they are Remember To Bring Your Attention To the Things That You Do. Remember to live. If you become aware you're living on autopilot and only reacting to life, bring your attention to the things that you do. If An Obstacle Gets in The Way It Doesn't Mean You Should Quit. An obstacle doesn't mean you should give up. Instead, it's a sign that you're on the right path and you need to continue. Learn To Embrace Your Weirdness and Accept Yourself. Embrace your weirdness. Don't stop caring about what other people think, but realize it's more important and easier to accept yourself rather than crave acceptance from others. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/warriormindset/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/warriormindset/support

We continue our mutual journey on the life and teachings of Bruce and Shannon Lee. I am incredibly inspired by the gift that Shannon has provided through her mediations on the life and teachings of Bruce Lee. Shannon has experienced an incredible amount of pain in her life, the loss of her father at four as well as the untimely death of her brother Brandon. She wouldn't wish it on anyone and would give anything to have been able to experience the vibrant lives of her brother and father. But that pain has given her an incredible wisdom that has made her such an incredible guide to the teachings of her father Bruce. In this episode, I explore that the growth that occurs through purpose driven pain or as Shannon calls it, "skillful frustrations" that we subject ourselves to reach our goals. Bruce called this "means," which is daily purpose driven discomfort to grow our minds, our bodies and spirits. We also detour to the Ringo Starr of the Stoics, Musonius Rufus, a guide our the virtues of hardship in the life as it reach is and conclude with Kelly Clarkson. I hope you get the opportunity to read Be Water, My Friend - The Teachings of Bruce Lee. The book can be purchased also by clicking on the link in the Bruce Lee Show Notes at www.rocknecole.com. Love this book!!

Episode 5 features Musonius Rufus, co-host of the Rebel Yell podcast. The Identity Dixie front man is used to asking the questions, but today, it's my turn! And as always, Rufus has lots of fascinating insights and enlightening experiences to share. Please join us for this intriguing discussion with a man whose motto is "Secede in your mind."

When each person strives to outdo the other in devotion, the marriage is ideal and worthy of envy, for such a union is beautiful. “In marriage, there must be complete companionship and concern for each other on the part of both husband and wife, in health and in sickness and at all times, because they entered upon the marriage for this reason as well as to produce offspring. When such caring for one another is perfect, and the married couple provides it for one another, and each strives to outdo the other, then this is marriage as it ought to be and deserving of emulation, since it is a noble union. But when one partner looks to his own interests alone and neglects the other's, or (by God) the other is so minded that he lives in the same house, but keeps his mind on what is outside it, and does not wish to pull together with his partner or to cooperate, then inevitably the union is destroyed, and although they live together their common interests fare badly, and either they finally get divorced from one another or they continue on in an existence that is worse than loneliness.” Musonius Rufus And, for those who don't know... Gaius Musonius Rufus was a Roman Stoic philosopher during the reign of Nero. Rufus is considered the Roman Socrates and was the teacher of Epictetus. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/donavon-riley/support

Stoicism, personal development, and the path of progress - that's what the Practical Stoic podcast was all about, and we retain this message now in The Walled Garden podcast and community. This episode is a re-release of an old podcast episode of the Practical Stoic Podcast (before rebranding to The Walled Garden). For a while, most of my pre-2020 episodes were only available to patrons. I have now made the choice to publish all pre-2020 episodes in order to give the complete view of my path through Stoicism, moving from the more practical personal-developmental ideas toward the deeper philosophical and theological understanding of Stoicism. The podcast is, of course, now called The Walled Garden. The Walled Garden came about in late 2021, and is a collaboration between myself, Sharon Lebell, and Kai Whiting. The Walled Garden is not just a podcast—it's a community of like-minded philosophers and seekers who are dedicated to the pursuit of truth, wisdom, virtue, and the divine. We hope you'll join us at thewalledgarden.com. If you're interested in one-on-one philosophical coaching with me, you can go to simonjedrew.com, or to thewalledgarden.com/mentors Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices