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A review by gautamgopalk
Lessons in Stoicism: What Ancient Philosophers Teach Us about How to Live by John Sellars
informative
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
2.0
Stoicism is a school of philosophy that flourished in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. The author, John Sellars, is an academic in history of philosophy who is involved in efforts to bring the philosophy of Stoicism to a wider audience. This book takes the work of three Stoics from olden times - Epictetus, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius - and distills a couple of broad themes in simple writing to a few pages. It is a very short read. It is an attempt to gently introduce some tenets of the philosophy to anyone curious about it.
There has apparently been a resurgence of Stoicism over the last couple of decades with people flocking towards this school of thought. This book, published just before the COVID-19 pandemic, attempts to capture the minds of the curious audience. Any small book on a deep subject hazards the risk of missing nuance. This book spectacularly misses every kind of nuance and the drawbacks of this work are clear from the get-go. If you want a rundown of Stoicism and don't have the time or energy to read Meditations written by Marcus Aurelius (and translated to English by Gregory Hays), then you could consider reading this Lessons in Stoicism, although a lot of contemporary discussions on online forums might be just as good to dip your toes into.
There has apparently been a resurgence of Stoicism over the last couple of decades with people flocking towards this school of thought. This book, published just before the COVID-19 pandemic, attempts to capture the minds of the curious audience. Any small book on a deep subject hazards the risk of missing nuance. This book spectacularly misses every kind of nuance and the drawbacks of this work are clear from the get-go. If you want a rundown of Stoicism and don't have the time or energy to read Meditations written by Marcus Aurelius (and translated to English by Gregory Hays), then you could consider reading this Lessons in Stoicism, although a lot of contemporary discussions on online forums might be just as good to dip your toes into.