Massimo Pigliucci's Blog, page 7

How to do the right thing with Seneca

[Based on How to Do the Right Thing: An Ancient Guide to Treating People Fairly, by Seneca, translated by Robert Kaster. Full book series here.]

A sense of fairness is fundamental to human nature. From childhood onward, we instinctively cry out ‘That’s not fair!’ when confronted with perceived injustice. Modern primatologists like Frans de Waal have shown that this sense of fairness extends beyond humans to all social primates. What distinguishes humans is our ability to analyze unfairness and pr...

How to Do the Right Thing with Seneca

[Based on How to Do the Right Thing: An Ancient Guide to Treating People Fairly, by Seneca, translated by Robert Kaster. Full book series here.]

A sense of fairness is fundamental to human nature. From childhood onward, we instinctively cry out ‘That’s not fair!’ when confronted with perceived injustice. Modern primatologists like Frans de Waal have shown that this sense of fairness extends beyond humans to all social primates. What distinguishes humans is our ability to analyze unfairness and pr...

Epictetus on providence

“Who is it, then, that has fitted this to that and that to this? And who is it that has fitted the sword to the scabbard, and the scabbard to the sword? No one? Assuredly from the very structure of all made objects we are accustomed to prove that the work is certainly the product of some artificer, and has not been constructed at random. …

And the male and the female, and the passion of each for intercourse with the other, and the faculty which makes use of the organs which have been constructed ...

Epictetus and the wand of Hermes

Hermes holding his magic wand, the caduceus. Image from deviantart.com, CC license.

Stoicism is a powerful practical philosophy aiming not only at personal self-improvement, but at the betterment of the entire cosmopolis, the ideal universal city of human beings. And Epictetus of Hierapolis is, in my mind, the foremost exponent of such philosophy, the one that literally changed my life once I started reading his Discourses and began to digest his Enchiridion.

But did you know that Stoicism, especi...

Practice like a Stoic: 35, Question every action

Image by Midjourney.

[This series of posts is based on A Handbook for New Stoics—How to Thrive in a World out of Your Control, co-authored by yours truly and Greg Lopez. It is a collection of 52 exercises, which we propose reader try out one per week during a whole year, to actually live like a Stoic. In Europe/UK the book is published by Rider under the title Live Like A Stoic. Below is this week’s prompt and a brief explanation of the pertinent philosophical background. Check the book for detai...

Cicero on the hypocrisy of certain philosophers

“This is the effect of philosophy, which is the medicine of our souls: it banishes all groundless apprehensions, frees us from desires, and drives away fears: but it has not the same influence over all people; it is of very great influence when it falls in with a disposition well adapted to it. …

For how few philosophers will you meet with, whose life and manners are conformable to the dictates of reason! who look on their profession, not as a means of displaying their learning, but as a rule for...

How to focus with John Cassian

[Based on How to Focus: A Monastic Guide for an Age of Distraction, by John Cassian, translated by Jamie Kreiner. Full book series here.]

These days we talk a lot about being constantly distracted by our gadgets, and we are right to worry about our ever decreasing attention span. But this is not a new problem at all. Sixteen centuries ago, when the relatively novel “gadget” around was called a book, and when there were not only no smart watches, but no watches at all, people still faced the probl...

How to Focus with John Cassian

[Based on How to Focus: A Monastic Guide for an Age of Distraction, by John Cassian, translated by Jamie Kreiner. Full book series here.]

These days we talk a lot about being constantly distracted by our gadgets, and we are right to worry about our ever decreasing attention span. But this is not a new problem at all. Sixteen centuries ago, when the relatively novel “gadget” around was called a book, and when there were not only no smart watches, but no watches at all, people still faced the probl...

Practice like a Stoic: 34, Care about more people (and other beings)

[This series of posts is based on A Handbook for New Stoics—How to Thrive in a World out of Your Control, co-authored by yours truly and Greg Lopez. It is a collection of 52 exercises, which we propose reader try out one per week during a whole year, to actually live like a Stoic. In Europe/UK the book is published by Rider under the title Live Like A Stoic. Below is this week’s prompt and a brief explanation of the pertinent philosophical background. Check the book for details on how to practic...

Aristotle on the importance of practicing virtue

“Now, since the present subject is taken up, not for the sake of contemplation, as are others—for we are conducting an examination, not so that we may know what virtue is, but so that we may become good, since otherwise there would be no benefit from it—it is necessary to examine matters pertaining to actions, that is, how one ought to perform them. For these actions have authoritative control over what sorts of characteristics come into being, just as we have said. …

This, then, is the first thi...