While we don’t get to decide when we get shipwrecked, we do get to decide what we rebuild out of the debris. ‘When I was a child, when I was an adolescent, books saved me from despair: that convinced me that culture was the highest of values.’ From The Woman Destroyed (1967) by Simone de[…]
Understanding through reason, self-discipline in wisdom and virtue. Introduction Stoicism, one of the three major schools of Hellenistic philosphy, was founded in Athens in 308 B.C.E. by Zeno of Citium (334-262 B.C.E.) and further developed by his two successors, Cleanthes (331-232 B.C.E.) and Chrysippus (c. 280-206 B.C.E.). The school got its name from the “stoa[…]
Rufus is primarily known today as the teacher of Epictetus, the slave who became a famous Stoic teacher. Introduction Gaius Musonius Rufus (c. 30 CE – c. 101 CE) was an influential 1st-century CE Stoic philosopher. While in modern times he is best known for being the teacher of Epictetus (c. 50 CE – c. 130 CE),[…]
Epicureanism competed with Stoicism to dominate Greek and Roman culture. By Temma Ehrenfeld ‘The pursuit of Happiness’ is a famous phrase in a famous document, the United States Declaration of Independence (1776). But few know that its author was inspired by an ancient Greek philosopher, Epicurus. Thomas Jefferson considered himself an Epicurean. He probably found[…]