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The School for a New Stoicism
Introducing an initiative to develop and disseminate Stoicism for the modern era
It may not look like it from the volume of material produced by my writing, podcasting, and video producing. But I’m actually fairly new to Stoicism and Greco-Roman practical philosophy. In fact, it all started in the midst of my mid-life crisis, back in 2014.
I had been looking for a while for philosophical resources to help me overcome some of life’s setbacks, as well as to guide me through a change of profession (from biology to philosophy). I had already zeroed in on the Greco-Roman approach known as virtue ethics, when by chance I saw a tweet (as it was called then!) asking people to help celebrate Stoic Week. What the heck was Stoic Week? And why would anyone wish to celebrate the Stoics??
I signed up despite my misgivings and was immediately prompted to read the Discourses, by a guy I had never heard of despite having taken graduate level courses in ancient philosophy: Epictetus of Hierapolis. I was struck by his no-nonsense approach to philosophy, not to mention his wicked sense of humor. Two years later I was due for a sabbatical leave from City College and decided to dedicate the time to an in-depth plunge into the history, theory, and practice of Stoicism. The result was my first (and still best selling) book on the subject: How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life.
And now here we are, about ten years later. I’m approaching another arbitrary milestone in my life: in a few months I will turn sixty! To my astonishment, of late I found myself actually thinking about retirement (still a few years down the road), and what I’d like to do with my life then. I decided that I would devote most of my energy and time to the development and dissemination of Stoicism for the modern era. Then I asked myself: and why would you want to wait until retirement for that??
(Side note: my wife immediately predicted that I wasn’t going to sit on this new project for eight more years. She knows me well…)
Hence today’s announcement. I have started a new informal organization called the School for a New Stoicism. The name of the enterprise is directly inspired by a book that made a huge impression on me…
