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Stoic Serenity: A Practical Course on Finding Inner Peace
Readers who enter upon this practical course in the Stoic art of living will learn how Stoic principles are linked to real life, and how to enjoy the 'smooth flow of life' of the Stoic Sage who follows nature and holds to virtue, finding fearlessness, inner peace, and freedom from troubles. Readers will gain maximum advantage from the course if they acquire copies of Seneca's Letters from a Stoic (Penguin Books), and the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (the Robin Hard translation from Wordsworth Editions is recommended). The text expands on a correspondence course previously made available by the Stoic Foundation. One student 'I believe this course has changed my life, and I cannot thank you enough' - DN, Australia. The book is illustrated with pen and ink drawings.
204 pages, Hardcover
First published February 6, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 2, 2012
Stoic Serenity is a practical guide to Stoicism as a way of life. The author, Keith Seddon, describes himself as a freelance academic and author. It is actually based on a correspondence course, first published in 2000, by an organisation called The Stoic Foundation. The course focuses mainly on the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius and the Letters of Seneca, probably the two most relevant sources for novice students of Stoicism. These are “set texts”, which the reader should also have access to, in order to follow the coursework in Stoic Serenity. Each chapter concludes with some written exercises and at the back of the book examples of answers provided by previous students are given along with tutor feedback.
I thought this was a good introduction to the challenge of applying Stoicism in the modern world, in one’s daily life. It’s probably going to be more accessible than most other books on Stoicism and provides clearly-described advice and exercises that anyone should be able to engage with. The whole point of Stoicism is that we should apply it in our own lives and this course gives the reader a good framework for beginning to do that. It’s also written in a style that encourages critical thinking and self-reflection, rather than merely teaching the theory and practice of Stoicism didactically. This book doesn’t engage with the comparison between Stoicism and the techniques of modern psychotherapy, which may reveal a wider repertoire of Stoic “exercises”, but it does a good job of helping the student to learn the core principles of Stoicism as a way of life and, as such, it would probably be the best thing for many newcomers to the subject to read first.
Seddon quite rightly observes that for Stoics, “Our responsibility is primarily to ourselves… The idea that the Stoic should promote justice (or any virtue) in others is hard to come by in the literature” (p. 166-167). However, of course, the many books written by ancient Stoics, and the fact that Stoics lectured and tutored others, suggest that they did seek to promote virtue in others, through education and training. Further, that seems to be precisely what Seddon’s course is meant to accomplish. Indeed, according to Stobaeus, the ancient Stoics believed that the Wise Man would naturally write books intended to help others. Stoic Serenity is such a book and I’m sure that many people will find it an excellent introduction to practical philosophy, as well as to the classic texts of Stoicism with which it deals.
Table of Contents of Stoic Serenity (2006)
Good, bad and indifferent
What is in our power
“Live simply” and “Live according to nature”
Universal nature, God and fate
Living in society
Impermanence, loss and death
Appendix 1: The Stoics on Determinism
Appendix 2: Striving to be Free of the Passions
Supplement 1: Sample Responses to Assignments
Supplement 2: Key to the Stoic Philosophy of Epictetus
Supplement 3: Conflict between Stoics and Epicurus
I thought this was a good introduction to the challenge of applying Stoicism in the modern world, in one’s daily life. It’s probably going to be more accessible than most other books on Stoicism and provides clearly-described advice and exercises that anyone should be able to engage with. The whole point of Stoicism is that we should apply it in our own lives and this course gives the reader a good framework for beginning to do that. It’s also written in a style that encourages critical thinking and self-reflection, rather than merely teaching the theory and practice of Stoicism didactically. This book doesn’t engage with the comparison between Stoicism and the techniques of modern psychotherapy, which may reveal a wider repertoire of Stoic “exercises”, but it does a good job of helping the student to learn the core principles of Stoicism as a way of life and, as such, it would probably be the best thing for many newcomers to the subject to read first.
Seddon quite rightly observes that for Stoics, “Our responsibility is primarily to ourselves… The idea that the Stoic should promote justice (or any virtue) in others is hard to come by in the literature” (p. 166-167). However, of course, the many books written by ancient Stoics, and the fact that Stoics lectured and tutored others, suggest that they did seek to promote virtue in others, through education and training. Further, that seems to be precisely what Seddon’s course is meant to accomplish. Indeed, according to Stobaeus, the ancient Stoics believed that the Wise Man would naturally write books intended to help others. Stoic Serenity is such a book and I’m sure that many people will find it an excellent introduction to practical philosophy, as well as to the classic texts of Stoicism with which it deals.
Table of Contents of Stoic Serenity (2006)
Good, bad and indifferent
What is in our power
“Live simply” and “Live according to nature”
Universal nature, God and fate
Living in society
Impermanence, loss and death
Appendix 1: The Stoics on Determinism
Appendix 2: Striving to be Free of the Passions
Supplement 1: Sample Responses to Assignments
Supplement 2: Key to the Stoic Philosophy of Epictetus
Supplement 3: Conflict between Stoics and Epicurus
May 18, 2019
This is a great little book about primary stoic tenets and it serves well as an introduction to the whole philosophy. A correspondence course originally, the book consists of 6 main chapters each one finishing with a questionaries to be answered by the reader with reviews to answers of course participants provided at the back. The book depends and is based upon additional literature which has to be acquired by the reader; Meditations by Marcus Aurelious and Letters from a Stoic by Lucius Seneca. The book allows for different ways of reading and the author actually encourages the reader to reread it multiple times; it can be finished in a day, 6 weeks or in my case several months. Many of the ideas here take time to process mainly because the book means to tweak the mind-set of the modern person(millennial is a hip word) regarding what's of importance in life, good, evil, and purpose. Stoic Serenity sheds any naivety that complete happiness and tranquillity can ever be acquired , except by the elusive figure of the stoic sage, serving as inspiration through out the chapters. Nevertheless the book provides very practical techniques requiring consistent effort in self-observation and discipline that can drastically change the reader's outlook for the better.
July 12, 2013
[4½ stars] An excellent introductory text on Stoic philosophy. This is a revision of a correspondence course that the author used to teach, so each chapter has reading and writing assignments based on the writings of classical Stoic authors. Although I was already familiar with the main points Seddon discusses, this book organizes these classical writings which makes studying them easier. Plus, I appreciated the author's modern perspective in discussing what the classical authors had to say. Be aware that you'll need copies of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations and Seneca's Letters from a Stoic to get the most out of this book since Seddon discusses them at length and only quotes short bits himself. I'd recommend this book to anyone seriously interested in learning about Stoicism.
June 24, 2017
This was a very good, and fairly demanding, introduction to the Stoics. Reading it takes awhile because you need three books: Letters from Seneca, Meditations, and the book itself. In addition, you need to be actively writing and responding to exercises throughout. It does seem like this structure makes the concepts stick better, and perhaps this is what people are looking for by a book like this. Not new ideas, but deepening their understanding of what it is like to live like a Stoic.
For me personally, two ideas stuck:
1. Nothing matters except developing your character
2. Going into everything "with reservation"
The first says that the only thing we should be concerned with is developing our character. Everything else, while good or bad, is indifferent. So, we shouldn't get caught in the riff-raff of day-to-day life, but instead try to understand what we really believe makes good character, and continually strive for this. Certainly a powerful idea.
The second is related to the idea of "control what you can control". Often times, we go into days, events, etc. with expectations of what we want to do. However, it is just as frequent that things do not meet our expectations. So, a productive mentality is to go into evernts with an idea of what you want to do, but accepting whatever happens "with reservation". In other words: Expect the best, but prepare for the worst.
Finally, the book encourages a nightly "journal" process to recap your day and progress. Admittedly, this is a habit I didn't stick to, but something that would really be helpful as a daily ritual.
Overall: a great book, from a very knowledgeable writer.
For me personally, two ideas stuck:
1. Nothing matters except developing your character
2. Going into everything "with reservation"
The first says that the only thing we should be concerned with is developing our character. Everything else, while good or bad, is indifferent. So, we shouldn't get caught in the riff-raff of day-to-day life, but instead try to understand what we really believe makes good character, and continually strive for this. Certainly a powerful idea.
The second is related to the idea of "control what you can control". Often times, we go into days, events, etc. with expectations of what we want to do. However, it is just as frequent that things do not meet our expectations. So, a productive mentality is to go into evernts with an idea of what you want to do, but accepting whatever happens "with reservation". In other words: Expect the best, but prepare for the worst.
Finally, the book encourages a nightly "journal" process to recap your day and progress. Admittedly, this is a habit I didn't stick to, but something that would really be helpful as a daily ritual.
Overall: a great book, from a very knowledgeable writer.
July 16, 2020
It was an interesting read and I learned a lot from stoic philosophy and there's some stuff that I could probably put into practice.
December 1, 2022
Been following stoicism for 3 years. I should have read this at the beginning for a smoother journey or a more informed journey
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews