![]() ![]() ![]() (For a contrasting one, read the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.) Although he comes close at times, the author never gets preachy, although at times something very close to a false modesty creeps in. His comments on euthanasia are apposite, and the accepting Stoic attitude towards death is well set out. His examples are real, some are amusing and some are quite moving. ![]() Setting that to one side, Pigliucci does a good job of exposition. I’m not sure I want to be the type of person who never gets smashed, never f*cks up and never bites off more than I can chew. As a person who enjoys occasional bouts of excess, I guess the part of the book I didn’t like was the substance. As such, it boils down to moderation in everything. The Stoic philosophy of life as presented is a very moral one: a virtue ethics, which depends on the wisdom to choose. Most of the chapters start out with an imagined conversation with Stoicism’s founder, Epictetus, who came across as the kind of guy I’d avoid in a pub, and the author, who seems like the kind of guy who’d have been more interesting to bump into in a pub before he was afflicted with Epictetus’s friendship. “Imagined Conversations with a Dead Greek” would be a better title for this tour of an ancient way of living, Stoicism. How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life by Massimo Pigliucci ![]()
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