How to Be a Stoic

A practical introduction to Stoicism written by a philosopher of science who took it up as a way of life. Pigliucci structures the book as an imagined conversation with Epictetus, the former slave turned teacher, whose Discourses and Handbook he follows closely. He begins with the dichotomy of control, the distinction between what is up to us, namely our judgements and actions, and what is not. He then organises the material around the three Stoic disciplines: desire, which concerns what we should want; action, which concerns how we treat others; and assent, which concerns how we judge our impressions. Along the way he discusses God and nature, the role of character and the cardinal virtues of wisdom, courage, justice and temperance, and applies Stoic ideas to death and suicide, disability and mental illness, anger and anxiety, love and friendship, and cosmopolitanism. The book ends with a set of practical spiritual exercises, from examining one's impressions to reviewing the day each evening.

It is a clear, honest introduction to Stoicism as a modern practice, open about which ancient doctrines a scientifically minded reader can keep and which to revise.