My Review of "How to Be a Stoic" by Massimo Pigliucci on GoodReads

How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life by Massimo Pigliucci
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Massimo Pigliucci offers the readers a practical guide to practicing stoicism, an ancient philosophy that has helped people live a good life for centuries. The book provides a concise summary of the tenets of stoicism, a brief history of its origins and a practical explanation on applying the wisdom of the ancient romans and greek stoics.

The book is divided in three parts, "The Discipline of Desire", "The Discipline of Action" and "The Discipline of Assent" What is proper to want and not want, How to Behave in the World and How to React to Situations.

The last chapter has a list of exercises taken from Epictetus’ Enchiridion meant to be practiced daily.

I was exposed to Stoicism in college when I took a class called "Reason and Values" that literally changed my life. I always summarized the teachings as "Focus what you can control, let go of the rest" as well as "Work on your character, nothing else matters" Meaning that to live a good life you must strive to be a virtuous person, and understand what you value and work on that. Nothing else works, if you focus on money you won't ever have enough, if you externalize your happiness (you base your happiness on what others think) then you will always be miserable because you don't control what other people do.

This book was a good review of the Stoic teachings, it offers well-written explanations meant for anyone to pick up and start practicing. I like how the author does not claim that Stoicism is the "one true way" or that this is the "silver bullet" that will solve all people's problems. Rather this is a guide for living your best life by adopting what works and dropping what doesn't. It's a powerful worldview when combined with a scientific approach to understanding the Universe.

The book is too short and leaves out a lot of other stoic works, but for the purpose of being an introductory book, it's perfect.

JV

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