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

Newest first

Mar 18, 2021 · 2 min
814. Is pain the worst of all evils?
Cicero and Brutus begin a conversation on the nature of pain. Brutus immediately concedes that pain isn't the worst possible evil. Infamy, which indicates a bad character, is to be avoided even at the cost of pain.
Mar 17, 2021 · 2 min
813. The real philosophical life
How few philosophers will you meet with whose life is conformable to the dictates of reason! Who look on their profession, not as a means of displaying their learning, but as a rule for their own practice!
Mar 16, 2021 · 2 min
812. The benefits of the philosophical life
Some people have a natural talent for music. But everyone can learn to play an instrument, even if they don't get to perform at Carnegie Hall. The same goes for philosophy: everyone can benefit from it, but not everyone is a sage.
Mar 15, 2021 · 2 min
811. Philosophers should be open to being wrong
We who pursue only probabilities, and who cannot go beyond that which seems really likely, can confute others without obstinacy, and are prepared to be confuted ourselves without resentment.
Mar 12, 2021 · 3 min
810. Philosophy underlies everything else
Cicero explains to his friend Brutus why he writes about philosophy, and why in order to do so well he has to be acquainted with a large variety of fields of inquiry. Philosophical knowledge leads to the good life.
Mar 11, 2021 · 2 min
809. Others are coping, so can you
How can that be miserable for one, which all must of necessity undergo?
Mar 10, 2021 · 2 min
808. Be careful what you wish for, especially with Apollo
Cicero recounts an anecdote involving Trophonius and Agamedes, who built the temple of Apollo at Delphi. They asked the god for whatever was best, and the god granted it: three days later, they were found dead.
Mar 9, 2021 · 2 min
807. Rites for the dead, care for the living
People carry out all sorts of rites to "take care" of the dead, even though there is no one to take care of. How about, instead, taking care of the people you love while they are still alive?
Mar 8, 2021 · 2 min
806. A Cynic reason to donate your organs after you die
Diogenes the Cynic famously didn't care what happened to his body after death, since he believed there would be no sensation. That's an excellent reason to check your driver's license and see if you signed up for organ donation.
Mar 5, 2021 · 2 min
805. The tiny insects that live one day
Aristotle discovered some insects whose entire life lasts one day. Compared to the vastness of time, our lives are not much longer. The question is whether we are able to live them fully.
Mar 4, 2021 · 2 min
804. The deal Nature has struck with us
Away, then, with those follies, such as that it is miserable to die before our time. What time do you mean? That of nature? But she has only lent you life, as she might lend you money, without fixing any certain time for its repayment.
Mar 3, 2021 · 2 min
803. The difference between facts and judgments
The process of nature is this: that in the same manner as our birth was the beginning of things with us, so death will be the end; and as we were not concerned with anything before we were born, so neither shall we be after we are dead.
Mar 2, 2021 · 3 min
802. As happy as Metellus?
It never occurs to a man that such a disaster may befall himself. As if the number of the happy exceeded that of the miserable; or as if there were any certainty in human affairs.
Mar 1, 2021 · 3 min
801. The right time to die
Cicero argues that sometimes people live too long for their own good. Which makes the Stoic point that life itself is not an intrinsic good, but the means by which we exercise virtue.
Feb 26, 2021 · 3 min
800. The real reason we are afraid of death
Death, says Cicero, overtakes us quickly, and it is therefore endurable. It is the thought of leaving people and things behind that is painful. But the Stoics have a unique argument for why we should overcome that fear.
Feb 25, 2021 · 2 min
799. What Socrates said about death
For the whole life of a philosopher is, as [Socrates] says, a meditation on death.
Feb 24, 2021 · 3 min
798. On the rationality of grief
Why exactly to we grieve when loved ones are gone? Is it about them, about us? Does it depend on what we think will happen to them after death?
Feb 23, 2021 · 2 min
797. Two possibilities for the afterlife
How, then, can you, or why do you, assert that you think that death is an evil, when it either makes us happy, in the case of the soul continuing to exist, or, at all events, not unhappy, in the case of our becoming destitute of all sensation?
Feb 22, 2021 · 3 min
796. On the nature of the soul
Cicero mentions a number of accounts of the nature of the soul, explaining that the Stoic take is that the soul is a physical attribute responsible for our faculty of judgment. And it perishes with us.
Feb 19, 2021 · 3 min
795. Nature's bargain
Nature has presented us with this bargain: either not being born at all, or being born a mortal. Everything else is the fantasy of priests bent on scaring and controlling us, as Epicurus put it.