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Stoic Wisdom

Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience

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Stoic Wisdom

By: Nancy Sherman
Narrated by: Pam Ward
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Drawing on the wisdom of Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and others, Nancy Sherman's Stoic Wisdom presents a compelling modern Stoicism that teaches grit, resilience, and the importance of close relationships in addressing life's biggest and smallest challenges.

A renowned expert in ancient and modern ethics, Sherman relates how Stoic methods of examining beliefs and perceptions can help us correct distortions in what we believe, see, and feel. Her study reveals a profound insight about the Stoics: They never believed, as Stoic popularizers often hold, that rugged self-reliance or indifference to the world around us is at the heart of living well. We are at home in the world, they insisted, when we are connected to each other in cooperative efforts. We build resilience and goodness through our deepest relationships.

Bringing ancient ideas to bear on 21st-century concerns, from workers facing stress and burnout to first responders in a pandemic, from soldiers on the battlefield to citizens fighting for racial justice, Sherman shows how Stoicism can help us fulfill the promise of our shared humanity. In nine lessons that combine ancient pithy quotes and daily exercises with contemporary ethics and psychology, Stoic Wisdom is a field manual for the art of living well.

©2021 Oxford University Press (P)2021 Gildan Media Consciousness & Thought Greek & Roman Philosophy Inspiring Ancient Philosophy

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When the author started mentioning, "white privilege" along with various BLM references and going as far as calling Michael Brown an innocent child murdered by police, I realized this was a virtue signaling, woke leftist propaganda book. I would not recommend this book and my biggest regret is wasting my time listening and reading it.

A big letdown for fans of stoicism

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Terrible. The author is a left wing moralizer, trying to bootstrap stoic philosophy to her vacuous, socio-political reflections.

The author is a piously woke self righteous preener.

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I wish there were less current political opinion and deeper analysis of Stoicism.

Sometimes she hits the mark when it comes to understanding certain Stoic practices but other times she completely misses.

Can we stop expecting people that lived in a different time and reality from us to have same values?

Sometimes she completely misses the mark

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After reading Think Like a Stoic by Pigliuchi.. This book is a massive step back. It sounds preachy, uncoordinated, and emotional which is ironic as the book is about stoic wisdom.

Preachy and disjointed

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I had great expectations for this book, but the constant left-leaning political commentary made it Ness art for me to skip over portions.

If by “modern stoicism” the author means “progressive” or “enlightened,” then she succeeded.

Alonso, it is set squarely in the pandemic and speaks almost exclusively to that past era.

But as a text for learning about ancient Stoicism and possible applications to today’s post-pandemic challenges, it failed me.

Is the current political discourse really necessary?

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A liberal will be annoyed with the excessive political opinions expressed.
A conservative is unlikely to get through the book without shutting it down.

Too political

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The Good:

Towards the end there is what stands out to me as the only thought provoking, memorable part of the book. Sherman’s thoughts on the “My Lai Massacre” and what the stoics view of emotions, in particular anger, would’ve been. A nuanced take on anger is apt for discussion amongst modern stoic thinkers.

The Bad:

This book is laced with outright distain for stoicism’s modern followers. It is abundantly clear that Sherman sees stoicism, as unjustly captured by “straight, misogynist, racist, white, men”

This reads more like a drawn out Facebook rant, virtue signaling to fellow Leftists that she’s sorry stoicism has been re-popularized by white men such as Ryan Holiday, and Tim Farris.

How can Sherman expect to convince moderate, sane, individuals to then follow stoic teachings when its modern followers are practically Nazi adjacent?

Sherman assumes stoicism is in favor amongst the “Alt Right“ due to the fact, that the teachings are those of dead, white, men who look cool on horseback. But is this really the motivation? Karl Marx, is a “dead, privileged, racist, white man.” Yet his ideas are not automatically lapped up due to his skin color. In fact he’s a darling of The Left.

A much more reasonable person would assume it’s the quality of the ideas and not the color of the skin that drives the modern interest. Furthermore, the focus on the “dead white men” is purely a phenomenon of The Left. Left-wing activist routinely try to discredit ideas based on these immutable characteristics. Often stating that we should not listen to a Marcus Aurelius type because of the amount of melanin in his skin.

The point this book turns into a Leftist Facebook rant is when she brings up the following 2021 political issues, seemingly in an effort to posture what side of the issues she’s on. Rather than draw stoic lessons from each or any.

-“Me too”
-Covid pandemic as a major disaster.
-“Black Lives Matter” as something other than a group of individuals with the least amount of stoic virtues publicly displayed in years.
-Gavin Newsom, as a great leader.
-Anthony Fauci as a great leader.
-“The Patriarchy” as major issue of the day.
-Comparison of George Floyd to Emmett Till
-Writing of the false rape accusations against Brett Kavanaugh.

Any of these issues could’ve been drawn upon for stoic virtues run amuck, but she never does. It’s all just to signal what side of the issues she’s on. We get it, you’re woke!

Modern Popularizers:

Sherman has assumptions about what Ryan Holidays books are focused on. It is clear she has either not read them, or was not paying attention when doing so. In a feeble attempt to turn him into a stoic grifter by laying out the dictionary definition of “hack” she’s exposes her fundamental lack of understating of what he’s attempting to do.

A large difference between Holiday’s books, and this is, I have no idea what Holiday’s personal politics are. Sherman is all too ready with left-wing propaganda, whilst Holidays books are void of person politics and focused on the stoic tenets applicable to modernity.

This book was a recommendation from “Holberg Prize Winner” Martha Nussbaum, as a superior summation of stoic teachings. The fact that she chose this book to do so discredits Martha as a credible stoic thinker. I plan to read more of her work to see if there is any “there” there. But I’m severely disappointed in this one.

Not the book advertised by the title.

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Nancy Sherman corrupts Stoic philosophy to advance a specific modern political ideology. She employs the language and techniques of Critical theory while not admitting that these philosophies have contradictory assumption about the universality of knowledge. She condemns the United States for its history of slavery while excluding references to Zeno of Citium's (the founder of Stoicism) call to end all slavery in his Republic. She fails to report the Stoic influence on American philosophers like Emerson, Thoreau and Thomas Wentworth Higgison as they advanced the abolition of slavery. She fails to address the NeoStoics and how many of the questions she asks have already been answered in the Stoic tradition. I am sure this book will sell well to those on the left but it doesn't accurately present Stoicism. The works of Donald Robertson are far superior in presenting the pure philosophy. I would highly recommend his "How to think like a Roman Empire."

Academically dishonest

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My favourite book of the Stoic revival so far. A remedy to the narrow readings of the more popular books (many of which I like), Sherman offers a broader and deeper survey of Stoicism than commonly presented, mining the rich veins for principles relevant to our modern social commitments, and honestly calling it when the seams are exhausted. Learned, considered, ra-ra free. Read this one.

Making it relevant

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while, the author's summary and grasp of stoic virtues is a positive, her application to current events is often politically biased and not grounded. in fact. picking winners and losers based on stoic virtues is kind of the opposite of what stoicism is supposed to teach.

I'm not sure what the author had to gain by trying to touch political lightning rods and then judge whether they were in violation of stoic virtues or not, but I I'm certain that it alienated listeners/ readers.

many of her judgments are now clearly erroneous based on more recent events and disclosures.

Misapplication of Stoic Interpretation

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