Massimo Pigliucci

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Massimo Pigliucci

Goodreads Author


Born
in Monrovia, Liberia
Website

Genre

Influences

Member Since
June 2022

URL


Massimo Pigliucci is an author, blogger, podcaster, as well as the K.D. Irani Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York.

His academic work is in evolutionary biology, philosophy of science, the nature of pseudoscience, and practical philosophy. His books include How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life (Basic Books) and Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk (University of Chicago Press).

His new book is Beyond Stoicism: A Guide to the Good Life with Stoics, Skeptics, Epicureans, and Other Ancient Philosophers (The Experiment).

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Massimo Pigliucci There aren't any mysteries in my life, I'm afraid. I'd rather write books than be the subject of one.…moreThere aren't any mysteries in my life, I'm afraid. I'd rather write books than be the subject of one.(less)
Average rating: 3.99 · 19,567 ratings · 1,889 reviews · 84 distinct worksSimilar authors
How to Be a Stoic: Using An...

4.04 avg rating — 13,900 ratings — published 2017 — 45 editions
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Nonsense on Stilts: How to ...

3.90 avg rating — 1,200 ratings — published 2008 — 17 editions
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A Handbook for New Stoics: ...

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4.06 avg rating — 1,107 ratings — published 2019 — 21 editions
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A Field Guide to a Happy Li...

3.78 avg rating — 1,008 ratings — published 2020 — 16 editions
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How to Live a Good Life: Ch...

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Think like a Stoic: Ancient...

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Answers for Aristotle: How ...

3.77 avg rating — 350 ratings — published 2012 — 7 editions
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The Quest for Character: Wh...

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More books by Massimo Pigliucci…

Epictetus on the consequences of human nature

“If what is said by the philosophers regarding the kinship of Nature and people be true, what other course remains for us but that which Socrates took when asked to what country he belonged, never to say ‘I am an Athenian,’ or ‘I am a Corinthian,’ but ‘I am a citizen of the universe’? For why do you say that you are an Athenian, instead of mentioning merely that corner into which your paltry body

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Published on April 15, 2025 03:02
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Massimo’s Recent Updates

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Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
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Welcome to the Monkey House was the second collection of short stories by Kurt Vonnegut, published in 1968. However, it contains all but one of the stories from his first collection, Canary in a Cat House, so the following comments may as well apply ...more
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The Value of the World and of Oneself by Mor Segev
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Pessimism by Joshua Foa Dienstag
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This book came out back in 2006, and I’m ashamed to say I just found out about it! But I quickly made up for the lost time and devoured it while taking copious notes. I will soon interview the author for my “Ars Vivendi” video conversations published ...more
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Pessimism by Joshua Foa Dienstag
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Giulio II. Il papa del Rinascimento by Giulio Busi
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How to Talk about Love by Plato
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D’Angour takes us by the hand and gives us a brief but highly informative and entertaining tour of one of the most delightful of the Platonic dialogues: the Symposium, or drinking party. The scene is set in the house of the poet Agathon, who has just ...more
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Plato and the Tyrant by James Romm
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One of the best things I’ve read about Plato, tyranny, and practical philosophy in a long time! Romm, who has written a biography of Seneca and has translated plenty of Greek and Latin authors, here takes the reader on an in-depth tour of ancient pol ...more
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How to Care about Animals by M.D. Usher
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Quotes by Massimo Pigliucci  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“If a theory purports to explain everything, then it is likely not explaining much at all.”
Massimo Pigliucci

“Better to endure pain in an honorable manner than to seek joy in a shameful one.”
Massimo Pigliucci, How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life

“[T]he nature of science is not that of a steady, linear progression toward the Truth, but rather a tortuous road, often characterized by dead ends and U-turns, and yet ultimately inching toward a better, if tentative, understanding of the natural world.”
Massimo Pigliucci, Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk

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“We should not be too confident in our belief of anything. (Cicero, Tusculan Disputations I.32)”
Marcus Tullius Cicero

“It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out.”
Carl Sagan

“UWTB, or the Universal Will to Become. UWTB is what makes universes out of nothingness—that makes nothingness insist on becoming somethingness.”
Kurt Vonnegut Jr., The Sirens of Titan

“I myself don’t know the facts of these matters, but I’ve never met anyone, including the people here today, who could disagree with what I’m saying and still avoid making himself ridiculous.”
Ward Farnsworth, The Socratic Method: A Practitioner's Handbook

“Renouncing the honors at which the world aims, I desire only to know the truth, and to live as well as I can, and, when I die, to die as well as I can. And, to the utmost of my power, I exhort all other men to do the same.”
Ward Farnsworth, The Socratic Method: A Practitioner's Handbook

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