Stoic Wisdom

Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience

By: Nancy Sherman

Narrated by: Pam Ward

Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Drawing on the wisdom of Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and others, Nancy Sherman's Stoic Wisdom presents a compelling modern Stoicism that teaches grit, resilience, and the importance of close relationships in addressing life's biggest and smallest challenges.

A renowned expert in ancient and modern ethics, Sherman relates how Stoic methods of examining beliefs and perceptions can help us correct distortions in what we believe, see, and feel. Her study reveals a profound insight about the Stoics: They never believed, as Stoic popularizers often hold, that rugged self-reliance or indifference to the world around us is at the heart of living well. We are at home in the world, they insisted, when we are connected to each other in cooperative efforts. We build resilience and goodness through our deepest relationships.

Bringing ancient ideas to bear on 21st-century concerns, from workers facing stress and burnout to first responders in a pandemic, from soldiers on the battlefield to citizens fighting for racial justice, Sherman shows how Stoicism can help us fulfill the promise of our shared humanity. In nine lessons that combine ancient pithy quotes and daily exercises with contemporary ethics and psychology, Stoic Wisdom is a field manual for the art of living well.

©2021 Oxford University Press (P)2021 Gildan Media

The author is a piously woke self righteous preener.

Terrible. The author is a left wing moralizer, trying to bootstrap stoic philosophy to her vacuous, socio-political reflections.

Sometimes she completely misses the mark

I wish there were less current political opinion and deeper analysis of Stoicism.

Sometimes she hits the mark when it comes to understanding certain Stoic practices but other times she completely misses.

Can we stop expecting people that lived in a different time and reality from us to have same values?

A big letdown for fans of stoicism

When the author started mentioning, "white privilege" along with various BLM references and going as far as calling Michael Brown an innocent child murdered by police, I realized this was a virtue signaling, woke leftist propaganda book. I would not recommend this book and my biggest regret is wasting my time listening and reading it.

Preachy and disjointed

After reading Think Like a Stoic by Pigliuchi.. This book is a massive step back. It sounds preachy, uncoordinated, and emotional which is ironic as the book is about stoic wisdom.

Is the current political discourse really necessary?

I had great expectations for this book, but the constant left-leaning political commentary made it Ness art for me to skip over portions.

If by “modern stoicism” the author means “progressive” or “enlightened,” then she succeeded.

Alonso, it is set squarely in the pandemic and speaks almost exclusively to that past era.

But as a text for learning about ancient Stoicism and possible applications to today’s post-pandemic challenges, it failed me.

Too political

A liberal will be annoyed with the excessive political opinions expressed.
A conservative is unlikely to get through the book without shutting it down.

Used the book to feed her political views. Lost all credibility!

Twisted the subject to spew her political views. Only wasted a few hours before I realized it was trash.

Misapplication of Stoic Interpretation

while, the author's summary and grasp of stoic virtues is a positive, her application to current events is often politically biased and not grounded. in fact. picking winners and losers based on stoic virtues is kind of the opposite of what stoicism is supposed to teach.

I'm not sure what the author had to gain by trying to touch political lightning rods and then judge whether they were in violation of stoic virtues or not, but I I'm certain that it alienated listeners/ readers.

many of her judgments are now clearly erroneous based on more recent events and disclosures.

Fantastic Application

Sherman understands that philosophy must connect with something relevant to us to become meaningful. This book does that with contemporary issues, rather than ask us to imagine some approximation of what they may have meant historicaly. Her application is both valid and sound.

Academically dishonest

Nancy Sherman corrupts Stoic philosophy to advance a specific modern political ideology. She employs the language and techniques of Critical theory while not admitting that these philosophies have contradictory assumption about the universality of knowledge. She condemns the United States for its history of slavery while excluding references to Zeno of Citium's (the founder of Stoicism) call to end all slavery in his Republic. She fails to report the Stoic influence on American philosophers like Emerson, Thoreau and Thomas Wentworth Higgison as they advanced the abolition of slavery. She fails to address the NeoStoics and how many of the questions she asks have already been answered in the Stoic tradition. I am sure this book will sell well to those on the left but it doesn't accurately present Stoicism. The works of Donald Robertson are far superior in presenting the pure philosophy. I would highly recommend his "How to think like a Roman Empire."