Stoicism

A Stoic Approach to Modern Life

By: Tom Miles

Narrated by: Adam Schulmerich

It's a well-recorded phenomenon that words are liable to develop different meanings in common modern usage compared to those they had their origins and how people "in the know" would use them. This is doubly true for philosophical concepts - the word Epicurean, for example, has been transmuted from identifying the very sober and level teachings of the Greek philosopher Epicurus to being a synonym for wanton pleasure-seeking and hedonism.

Stoicism hasn't suffered as severe a distortion. The modern understanding of what it means to be stoical is never showing any form of outward emotion regardless of all circumstances, good or bad, and indeed not having any emotions whatsoever. The entire species of the Vulcans in the popular science fiction franchise Star Trek exemplifies the popular definition. But it's easy to recognize an absence of outward emotion as not necessarily being a good thing; it is possible, after all, for someone to have a calm and blank exterior and yet be screaming inside. Having no internal emotion at all is also a less-than-ideal situation, as well. Without emotion, how could one possibly enjoy life?

Being immune to the negatives and vicissitudes of life in this way is something we can all stand to benefit from. Our modern lives are so full of worries and insecurities, and peace and fulfillment are something most people try to find outside of themselves. Stoicism teaches that these are things we can only find from inside ourselves, and gives us the tools and mindset necessary to build them up.

What this audiobook will endeavor to do is to introduce the philosophy of Stoicism to the modern person and make a case for how it can drastically improve our outlook and quality of life.

©2015 Tom Miles (P)2015 HRD Publishing

excellent philosophy for life

very good quick read on a form of philosophy that I was always curious about

Excellent

The book broke down questions i had on stoicism and explained a lot it it’s a first step book to understanding stoicism

great starter

ive never read or heard anything about stocisim, this is a very good starter to delve into the subject. thanks audable and ancient stoicis

Stoicism is a good book

Its a good book. Negating the popular belief that stoicism is giving up on everything material. It's not. Its a balance between differentiating and accepting what you can control and what you can't.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by author, narrator or publisher.

concise and to the point

concise and to the point. well summarized and immediately applicable. good introduction to the philosophy

Good as a very quick intro to Stoicism

Very easy listen. Quick finish, and also have follow up materials for the reader to continue.

A good start...

This is excellent for a less than 1 hour introduction to Stoicism and where to find further readings of it.

In particular, I liked the introduction and explanations of the concepts of negative visualisation and voluntary discomfort.

Again, it's a very short introduction, so if you're familiar with Stoicism, this isn't for you.

But if you've only a cursory knowledge of Stoicism, or just heard of it listening to Tim Ferriss, this audio book will give you a good start.

the key elements of stoicism have been distilled

probably the best summary of stoicism that I've read yet. why make it any longer than it needs to be?

Excellent guide to MODERN stoicism

As a short introduction to the contemporary psychology and ethics which borrow from the greatest insights of ancient stoicism, this was a GREAT listen!

For anyone primarily interested in the actual philosophies of the ANCIENT stoics, however, I would recommend Googling "Philosophy without any gaps", and listening to the episodes on the ancient stoics there instead.

While this guide "only" includes adapted portions of the best ingrediens of stoic philosophy which work TODAY, that's not exactly a drawback for the purposes of this book.

Indeed, the original versions of ancient stoicism would REQUIRE some pruning in order to be possible to emulate today in any useful sense to begin with.

As such, this guide does the job well, and further reading is recommended by the end of it.

Super short. Barely a pamphlet.

It's not bad and would be useful as a basic introduction. But certainly not worth the money.