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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Oct 25, 2019 · 2 min
474. Don't be angry, be useful
When someone is wandering about our city because they have lost their way, it is better to place then on the right path than to drive them away.
Oct 24, 2019 · 2 min
473. Anger is like drunkenness, it doesn't help
Seneca responds somewhat sarcastically to the Aristotelian suggestion that a bit of anger is good because it makes soldiers more willing to fight. So does being drunk, but no general would want a drunken army.
Oct 23, 2019 · 2 min
472. Why are love and a sense of justice not enough?
Defenders of the right to be angry say that we should be angered by injustice. But why is it that positive emotions, like love, concern for others, and a well developed sense of justice, aren't enough?
Oct 22, 2019 · 2 min
471. The three movements of anger
The best plan is to reject straightway the first incentives to anger, to resist its very beginnings, and to take care not to be betrayed into it: for if once it begins to carry us away, it is hard to get back again into a healthy condition.
Oct 21, 2019 · 3 min
470. Anger is a short madness
Anger is very like a falling rock which breaks itself to pieces upon the very thing which it crushes. That you may know that they whom anger possesses are not sane, look at their appearance.
Oct 18, 2019 · 2 min
469. Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go
Stoics have no problem with wealth. We are not Cynics, after all. So long as it is not ill-gotten, or ill-used, it represents yet another preferred indifferent, yet another occasion to exercise virtue.
Oct 17, 2019 · 2 min
468. The difference between impressions and assent
An eye, when open, has no option but to see. The decision whether to look at a particular man’s wife, however, and how, belongs to the will.
Oct 16, 2019 · 2 min
467. Begin to reckon age, not by years, but by virtues
To have lived 60 years, or 70, or 100 is an interesting factoid, but the real question is: have you lived well?
Oct 15, 2019 · 2 min
466. No one dies too soon
Unless you believe in miracles, you agree that events are regulated by cause and effect. In which case the notion that someone dies "too soon" is highly problematic. Not just metaphysically, but for your own mental well being.
Oct 14, 2019 · 2 min
465. Go through life like a traveler stopping at an inn
Life is short, and we should thread lightly, mindful of the fact that it is up to us to leave the place in good conditions, so that the next travelers will enjoy it as much as we did.
Oct 11, 2019 · 2 min
464. Sometimes people live too long for their own good
If sickness had carried off that glory and support of the empire Gnaeus Pompeius, at Naples, he would have died the undoubted head of the Roman people, but as it was, a short extension of time cast him down from his pinnacle of fame.
Oct 10, 2019 · 3 min
463. On the nature of death
If anyone pities the dead, he ought also to pity those who have not been born. Death is neither a good nor a bad thing, for that alone which is something can be a good or a bad thing.
Oct 7, 2019 · 2 min
462. Do not fear the netherworld, don't listen to the fantasies of poets and priests
He who dies need fear no darkness, no prison, no blazing streams of fire, no river of Lethe, no judgment seat before which he must appear, and that Death is such utter freedom that he need fear no more despots.
Oct 4, 2019 · 2 min
461. Nature is fair in her bargains
Whenever we decide to do something, we enter in a bargain with the cosmic web of cause-effect. The decision and effort is up to us, the outcome not so.
Oct 3, 2019 · 2 min
460. The common lot of mortals
Every time we lose a loved one it means that we have, in fact, loved. So we should not be resentful for what the universe has taken, but rather thankful for what it has given.
Oct 2, 2019 · 3 min
459. Women are just as capable as men of achieving eudaimonia
Believe me -- says Seneca to Marcia -- [women] have the same intellectual power as men, and the same capacity for honorable and generous action.
Oct 1, 2019 · 3 min
458. Which is the better lot, to be happy for a short time or not at all?
Seneca reminds his friend Marcia, who had lost a son a couple of years later, that it is better to be thankful for what she had, rather than resentful for what she has lost.
Sep 30, 2019 · 2 min
457. No regrets, only thankfulness
Everything we think we have is actually on loan from the universe, so to speak, and we need to be ready to give it back whenever the universe recalls the loan, no matter in what form it does it.
Sep 27, 2019 · 2 min
456. Pay attention to the setbacks of others
One way to prepare for setbacks in life is to pay attention when they happen to others. We are not exceptions to the fabric of the universe, we are an integral part of it. What happens to others may or will happen to us.
Sep 26, 2019 · 2 min
455. Reasonable vs unreasonable grief
Feeling grief and sorrow at the loss of a loved one is natural and inevitable. Dwelling on it to the point of becoming paralyzed and not being able to resume an active role in society is something we need to avoid.