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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Aug 28, 2019 · 3 min
434. Stoics vs Epicureans
Avoiding pain and seeking pleasure comes natural to human beings. But, so argue the Stoics, being prosocial is even more fundamental to our nature as social animals.
Aug 27, 2019 · 2 min
433. Bad thoughts are like catchy tunes
Just like a catchy tune won't leave your mind easily, once it has gained access, so with thoughts of unvirtuous actions. So don't grant them entrance in the first place.
Aug 23, 2019 · 2 min
432. Stoicism is not good for consumerism
How many things are superfluous; we merely used them not because we needed them, but because we had them. How much do we acquire simply because our neighbors have acquired such things, or because most people possess them!
Aug 22, 2019 · 2 min
431. How to tell a Stoic
Finding yourself at a party and want to know if someone else is practicing Stoicism? Ask them what they think is the chief good and the chief bad.
Aug 21, 2019 · 3 min
430. The right attitude about the world
To have whatsoever they wish is not in people's power; it is in their power not to wish for what they have not, but cheerfully to employ what comes to them.
Aug 20, 2019 · 2 min
429. Everything tastes good if you are hungry
“Bad bread!” you say. But just wait for it; it will become good. Hunger will make even such bread delicate and of the finest flavor. And the same goes for any other external thing, whether a necessity or a luxury.
Aug 19, 2019 · 2 min
428. Anger is a self inflicted wound
Nothing need provoke our anger if we do not add to our pile of troubles by getting angry.
Aug 16, 2019 · 2 min
427. A simple way to go right, many ways to go wrong
It's relatively easy to stay on the right track by following simple methods, but there are countless ways to go wrong if we don't pay attention. Here are three basic rules from Stoic philosophy to keep your life on the right track.
Aug 15, 2019 · 2 min
426. The balance between inner and outer resources
How do we strike a good balance between cultivating externals, like wealth, and focusing on the improvement of our own character? Different philosophical schools gave different answers to this question.
Aug 14, 2019 · 2 min
425. Ethics and human nature
Philosophers have debated for millennia the nature of ethics. Is it arbitrary? Or are there universal moral laws that we can apprehend through reason? Neither, say the Stoics. Theirs is a thoroughly naturalistic philosophy.
Aug 13, 2019 · 2 min
424. What the virtues are for
Desires have to be reined in, fear to be suppressed, proper actions to be arranged, debts to be paid; we therefore include self-restraint, bravery, prudence, and justice among the virtues – assigning to each quality its special function.
Aug 12, 2019 · 2 min
423. The difference may be subtle
There are, as you know, vices which are next-door to virtues. Carelessness looks like ease, and rashness like bravery.
Aug 9, 2019 · 2 min
422. Of friendship, dogs, and meat thrown in the middle
No doubt you have seen dogs playing with, and fawning before, each other, and thought, ‘Nothing could be friendlier.’ But just throw some meat in the middle, and then you’ll know what friendship amounts to.
Aug 8, 2019 · 2 min
421. The analogy between physical and mental health
The Stoics understood what bodily health is, and from that they deduced the existence of a certain mental health also. They knew about bodily strength, and from that they inferred the existence of mental sturdiness.
Aug 7, 2019 · 2 min
420. Nothing is good which can be put to wrong use by any person
The Stoics regard nothing as good which can be put to wrong use by any person. And we can all see for ourselves to what wrong uses many people put their riches, their high position, or their physical powers.
Aug 6, 2019 · 2 min
419. The difference separating Aristotelians, Stoics, and Cynics
Externals — such as money, possessions, and the like — are how we exercise our virtue, which cannot be expressed in a vacuum. And one of the four cardinal virtues is temperance.
Aug 5, 2019 · 2 min
418. Where's your stopping point?
He who has much, desires more – a proof that he has not yet acquired enough; but he who has enough has attained that which never fell to the rich man’s lot – a stopping-point.
Aug 2, 2019 · 2 min
417. Three disciplines to live a better life
In order to live a meaningful life (ethics) we need to reason well about things (logic), and we need to have a good grasp of how the world works (science). How are your logic and science, then?
Aug 1, 2019 · 2 min
416. A starving man despises nothing
We take a lot of things for granted, when life is going well for us. But — fools that we are — we really appreciate what we had only once we’ve lost it. That's why the Stoics devised a series of exercises in mild self-deprivation.
Jul 31, 2019 · 2 min
415. Are you conducting yourself virtuously in your profession?
Here is a basic Stoic equation: external thing or activity + virtue = good, while its opposite is: external thing or activity + vice = bad. So, is your profession good or bad, according to this approach?