Because Ideas Matter...
The faculty and staff of Butler University's College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences presents
Recommended Readings
The Stoics Reader: Selected Writings and Testimonia
Translated with Introduction by Brad Inwood and Lloyd P. Gerson,
Hackett, 2008
Reviewed by Tiberiu Popa
We may often find ourselves commenting on
our or others' stoic attitude, without pausing to ponder what
exactly that means. We might even read Marcus Aurelius'
"Meditations" (apparently Bill Clinton's once favorite book)
without taking the trouble to place it in the larger context of the
history of Stoicism as a theoretical outlook and a practical
philosophy. Anyone interested in learning about the revealing (and
sometimes perplexing) interconnections of ethics, politics, natural
philosophy and theology in Stoicism and implicitly about its chief
concepts and tenets (assent, morally perfect action,
self-sufficiency etc.) will find The Stoics Reader to be a most
reliable guide. This collection is impressively substantial
without, however, claiming to be exhaustive (Marcus Aurelius'
"Meditations", for instance, is not included here). Brad Inwood and
Lloyd P. Gerson have provided a selection of texts expertly
translated from Greek and Latin and conveniently gathered in the
three main sections of this excellent anthology: Logic and Theory
of Knowledge, Physics, and Ethics. The translations are largely
based on the relevant segments of Hellenistic Philosophy:
Introductory Readings, a more comprehensive anthology previously
produced by the same scholars. Besides emphasizing the influence
Stoicism held in the Greek world and then in Roman culture, the two
translators of these texts also remind us in their brief
introduction that the Stoic doctrine, despite its old-fashioned
anthropocentric cosmology, still invites reflection on the meaning
of happiness and on how the self relates to nature, as well as on
free will and moral responsibility, among so many other objects of
inquiry that we still deem of virtually vital interest today.
- Tiberiu is associate professor of philosophy at Butler
University.