My first introduction to Stoic thinking came from reading Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning; a powerful book showing how important self-discipline and attitude are in situations that some may see as hopeless.
After discussing Tim O’Reilly’s thoughts on Classics last week, I was reminded of a post I’ve been meaning to read for a few months: a concise introduction to Stoicism by Ryan Holiday. (Billed as being an introduction ‘for entrepreneurs’, this merely means that it contains some real-world examples of the philosophy that you can put into practice straight away, cutting through the academic ambiguity.)
For further introductions, Glyn Hughes’ Squashed Philosophers provides condensed versions of many of the most important philosophical works (including modern thinkers such as Turing and Darwin).
Comments
2 responses to “An Introduction to Stoicism (and Other Philosophies)”
Tim’s essay/answers were really spectacular. Like better than I’ve ever heard any professor or writer ever do.
I really felt that your guest post on Tim’s site was a breath of fresh air. I was starting to find the material on his site stale, edging more towards productivity ‘hacks’ than anything practical–your introduction gave it a new lease of life in my eyes.
As you say, Tim’s thoughts on the topic were well structured and concise, and it’s great to have this confirmed by you, after working closely with him on this. (I’m thinking specifically of his Practicality of Pessimism: Stoicism as a Productivity System talk.)