Guide to Stoicism

On the Shortness of Life by Lucius Annaeus Seneca.De Brevitate Vitae (English: On the Shortness of Life) is a moral essay written by Seneca the Younger, a Roman Stoic philosopher, sometime around the year 49 AD, to his father-in-law Paulinus. The philosopher brings up many Stoic principles on the nature of time, namely that people waste much of it in meaningless pursuits. According to the essay, nature gives people enough time to do what is really important and the individual must allot it properly. In general, time is best used by living in the present moment in pursuit of the intentional, purposeful life.Featured on Guide to Stoicism.Public-domain recording courtesy of LibriVox (librivox.org).This episode includes AI-generated content.

Magna Moralia by Aristotle.Magna Moralia (Ancient Greek: ΗΟΙΚΩΝ ΜΕΓΑΛΩΝ, English: Great Ethics) discusses topics including friendship, virtue, happiness and God. It is disputed whether Aristotle wrote Magna Moralia. This author concludes that it is absurd to suggest that God contemplates only God but does not propose an alternative activity for God.Featured on Guide to Stoicism.Public-domain recording courtesy of LibriVox (librivox.org).This episode includes AI-generated content.

Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation by James Barr Walker.The book is a series of independent demonstrations, the results of which accumulate to the final conclusion, that the Christian religion is necessarily the only religion possible to meet the spiritual wants of mankind. In arriving at this conclusion, the different arts and processes of revealed religion are examined, and their adaptedness to perform their several functions in elevating, purifying, and actuating the human soul to benevolent effort, is determined, and, finally, the practical operation of the system is shown, as a matter of undeniable experience, to produce the complete and necessary result required. . . .Featured on Guide to Stoicism.Public-domain recording courtesy of LibriVox (librivox.org).This episode includes AI-generated content.

Philosophy of Logical Atomism by Bertrand Russell.'The Philosophy of Logical Atomism' is a series of lectures by Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) that touches on numerous topics, including the nature of propositions, the relations of propositions to facts and of different types of words to the varieties of things, what kinds of facts there are, existence, monism and pluralism, and aspects of philosophical logic and of reference. Guiding the lectures, at least according to Russell's headnote to his lectures, is Russell's intent to fully flesh out ideas he learned from his former pupil, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951).Featured on Guide to Stoicism.Public-domain recording courtesy of LibriVox (librivox.org).This episode includes AI-generated content.

Critique of Practical Reason by Immanuel Kant.The Critique of Practical Reason ( Kritik der praktischen Vernunft ) is the second of Immanuel Kant's three critiques, first published in 1788. It follows on from his Critique of Pure Reason and deals with his moral philosophy. The second Critique exercised a decisive influence over the subsequent development of the field of ethics and moral philosophy, becoming the principle reference point for ethical systems that focus on the rightness or wrongness of actions themselves, as opposed to the rightness or wrongness of the consequences of those actions. Subsequently termed “deontological ethics”, Kant’s ethical system also laid the groundwork of moral absolutism, the belief that there are absolute standards against which moral questions can be judged, and that certain actions are right or wrong, devoid of the context of the act.Featured on Guide to Stoicism.Public-domain recording courtesy of LibriVox (librivox.org).This episode includes AI-generated content.

Some Turns of Thought in Modern Philosophy by George Santayana.Before the beginning of World War II, during the time of the Modernist movement in philosophy, George Santayana wrote these five descriptive essays. He examined John Locke’s sensationalism, British Idealism, the “Theory of Relativity”, Freud’s psychology, and Julien Benda’s preachment on the relations between God and the world.Featured on Guide to Stoicism.Public-domain recording courtesy of LibriVox (librivox.org).This episode includes AI-generated content.

Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion by David Hume.In Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, philosopher David Hume examines whether belief in God can be rational. The work takes the form of a debate between three characters: Cleanthes, who argues that the existence and nature of God can be empirically verified; Demea, who argues that God is completely beyond human knowledge; and Philo, a philosophical skeptic widely thought to represent Hume's own beliefs. Much of the debate centers around Cleanthes' presentation of the analogical argument from design. According to this argument, the complexity and beauty of the universe can only be explained by inferring an intelligent designer, in the same way that one would infer a designer if one came across an intricately complicated machine. Philo presents several objections to this argument, with rejoinders by Cleanthes and occasional interjections by Demea.Featured on Guide to Stoicism.Public-domain recording courtesy of LibriVox (librivox.org).This episode includes AI-generated content.

Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals by David Hume.David Hume, an eminent Scottish philosopher, historian, and essayist, explores the nature and foundation of Morals in this book, which was written as a popular summary of Book III in A Treatise of Human Nature. Hume states: “There has been a controversy started of late, much better worth examination, concerning the general foundation of Morals; whether they be derived from Reason, or from Sentiment; whether we attain the knowledge of them by a chain of argument and induction, or by an immediate feeling and finer internal sense; whether, like all sound judgement of truth and falsehood, they should be the same to every rational intelligent being; or whether, like the perception of beauty and deformity, they be founded entirely on the particular fabric and constitution of the human species.”Featured on Guide to Stoicism.Public-domain recording courtesy of LibriVox (librivox.org).This episode includes AI-generated content.

Selections from the Principles of Philosophy by René Descartes.The Principles of Philosophy, originally published in Latin in 1644, and translated to French in 1647, sets forth the principles of nature--the Laws of Physics--as Descartes viewed them. The book provides a systematic statement of natural philosophy and metaphysics, and represents the first truly comprehensive, mechanistic account of the universe. The Selections from the Principles of Philosophy contains the whole of the first part of the book ("Of the Principles of Human Knowledge"), as well as selections from the second ("Of the Principles of Material Things"), third ("Of the Visible World"), and fourth part ("Of the Earth") of the book.Featured on Guide to Stoicism.Public-domain recording courtesy of LibriVox (librivox.org).This episode includes AI-generated content.

Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche.First published in 1886 at Nietzsche’s own expense, the book was not initially considered important. In it, Nietzsche denounced what he considered to be the moral vacuity of 19th century thinkers. He attacked philosophers for what he considered to be their lack of critical sense and their blind acceptance of Christian premises in their considerations of morality and values. Beyond Good and Evil is a comprehensive overview of Nietzsche’s mature philosophy.Featured on Guide to Stoicism.Public-domain recording courtesy of LibriVox (librivox.org).This episode includes AI-generated content.