Hello everyone, I’m hosting my next lecture in NYC Sunday 5/18 afternoon on Plato’s Symposium. If you want to attend please:
Paid subscribers get priority access to all my in-person events, so please consider upgrading to support my work:
Disclaimer: Since this newsletter goes out to ~25,000 subscribers, please treat the in-person event application above as lottery, even if you’re a paid subscriber. I will try to fit as many people as possible.
People think of stoicism as a secular philosophy that can improve our lives without the baggage of organized religion. But the legendary stoic scholar Tad Brennan argues otherwise: Stoicism fundamentally does not work without a belief in Zeus.
In this interview, we explore three different formulations of the stoic way of life:
To Act virtuously
To Select things well
To Live in accordance with nature
…and find that these seemingly simple prescriptions are grounded on a whole host of theological views. You can’t be a stoic without believing in Zeus. Stoic ethics just does not work without stoic religion.
Topics we cover:
05:02 Why Stoics Reject Everything But Virtue
07:23 Why Stoicism Doesn't Work Without Zeus
11:11 Is Virtue Always In Our Control?
27:49 Why The Stoics Believed in a Personal Deity
32:21 How the Stoics Viewed Nature
37:03 The Three Formulations of Stoic Ethics
40:02 Why The Stoics Don't Imitate Role Models
43:02 The Political Philosophy of Stoicism
48:10 Don't Let Your Children Be Stoics
Subscribe to my newsletter if you want content updates, invitations to events, and to support my work:
You will also get priority access to lectures and events I host in the future.