Stoic Meditations

Massimo Pigliucci

Occasional reflections on the wisdom of Ancient Greek and Roman philosophers with Prof. Massimo Pigliucci. Complete index by author and source at https://massimopigliucci.org/stoic-podcast/. (cover art by Marek Škrabák; original music by Ian Jolin-Rasmussen).

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1,094 episodes
Updated Aug 23, 2022

Episodes1094

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Jul 8, 2021 · 3 min
874. The importance of Socrates
Socrates was the first who brought down philosophy from the heavens, placed it in cities, introduced it into families, and obliged it to examine into life and morals, and good and evil.
Jul 7, 2021 · 3 min
873. The first philosopher
Cicero tells us that Pythagoras was the first to use the word philosopher and to explain what philosophy consists of. The Stoics will partially agree with Pythagoras' definition, but the disagreement is crucial.
Jul 6, 2021 · 2 min
872. Do not catastrophize
We, who increase every approaching evil by our fear, and every present one by our grief, choose rather to condemn the nature of things than our own errors.
Jul 5, 2021 · 3 min
871. Is virtue sufficient for a happy life?
If virtue were but the slave of fortune, I am afraid that it would seem desirable rather to offer up prayers, than to rely on our own confidence in virtue as the foundation for our hope of a happy life.
Jul 2, 2021 · 2 min
870. If anger is natural, what's wrong with it?
Where, then, are they who say that anger has its use? Can madness be of any use? But still it is natural. Can anything be natural that is against reason?
Jul 1, 2021 · 2 min
869. Redirect your mind toward useful things
Whenever we catch ourselves being too focused on trivial or unimportant things, we can willfully redirect our attention on the sort of activities that are truly good for us and for other people.
Jun 30, 2021 · 2 min
868. The meaning of true love
The Stoics, in truth, say, not only that their wise person may be a lover, but they even define love itself as an endeavor to originate friendship out of the appearance of beauty.
Jun 29, 2021 · 2 min
867. Your (mature) emotional response is up to you
One thing alone seems to embrace the question of all that relates to the perturbations of the mind—the fact, namely, that all perturbations are in our own power; that they are taken up upon opinion, and are voluntary.
Jun 28, 2021 · 3 min
866. Think about how others endure adversity
Cicero advocates a standard Stoic technique: when facing adversity, remind yourself that many others have experienced something similar and have endured it. So can you.
May 31, 2021 · 3 min
865. Philosophy is the cure
Certainly the most effectual cure is to be achieved by showing that all perturbations are of themselves vicious, and have nothing natural or necessary in them.
May 28, 2021 · 2 min
864. The problem with grief
We should not take sorrows on ourselves upon another’s account; but we ought to relieve others of their grief if we can.
May 27, 2021 · 2 min
863. Anger is good only when it's fake
Anger is in no wise becoming in an orator, though it is not amiss to affect it. Do you imagine that I am angry when in pleading I use any extraordinary vehemence and sharpness?
May 26, 2021 · 2 min
862. Virtue is a kind of knowledge
What is Chrysippus’s definition? Fortitude, says he, is the knowledge of all things that are bearable, or an affection of the mind which bears and supports everything in obedience to the chief law of reason without fear.
May 25, 2021 · 2 min
861. Courage does not require anger
Take care how you make courage to depend in the least on rage. For anger is altogether irrational, and that is not courage which is void of reason.
May 24, 2021 · 2 min
860. Why Aristotle was wrong about moderating vice
For whoever prescribes bounds to vice admits a part of it, which, as it is odious of itself, becomes the more so as it stands on slippery ground, and, being once set forward, glides on headlong, and cannot by any means be stopped.
May 21, 2021 · 3 min
859. Virtue is right reason
There is an important distinction to be made between instrumental reason, which is morally neutral, and what the Stoics call "right" reason, or virtue, which comes with a built-in moral prescription.
May 20, 2021 · 2 min
858. Disharmony of the mind
Cicero says that our mind becomes sick when our opinions and judgments are not coherent with each other, just like our body becomes sick when one of its parts is in disharmony with the rest.
May 19, 2021 · 2 min
857. Apply the Socratic remedy
Money, fame, and sexual pleasure are not problematic per se. They may be preferred or dispreferred, so long as they don’t control us and lead us away from a virtuous life. Own your desires and pleasures, do not be own by them.
May 18, 2021 · 2 min
856. The importance of temperance
Intemperance, which is in opposition to reason, inflames, confounds, and puts every state of the mind into a violent motion. Thus, grief and fear, and every other perturbation of the mind, have their rise from intemperance.
May 17, 2021 · 2 min
855. Envy, malevolence, and delight
Cicero continues his classification of the emotions as seen by the Stoics. Envy, for instance, is a type of grief generated by the mistaken belief that the prosperity of another is an injury to ourselves.