Suggested readings, #24

Here are some interesting articles I’ve come across recently, for your consideration:

The five most popular books on Stoicism. Modern introductions to Stoic philosophy as a way of life. (Medium)

The three classic books on Stoic philosophy. The most important ancient texts on Stoicism. (Medium)

Metaphors are us. War, murder, music, art. We would have none without metaphor. (Nautilus)

Righteous incivility. The temptation to be uncivil grows as public discourse gets nastier and more aggressive. Can rudeness ever be righteous? (Aeon)

The death of Alexander the Great: one of history’s great unsolved mysteries. When you party too hard after conquering the world. (LitHub)

My name is Wil Wheaton. I live with chronic depression and generalized anxiety. I am not ashamed. (Medium)

A famous argument against free will has been debunked. For decades, a landmark brain study fed speculation about whether we control our own actions. It seems to have made a classic mistake. We shall patiently await Sam Harris correcting himself… (Atlantic)

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Massimo

Massimo is the K.D. Irani Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York. He blogs at platofootnote.org and howtobeastoic.org. He is the author of How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life.

4 thoughts on “Suggested readings, #24”

  2. Alexander’s death, IMO, is not a “great” unsolved mystery. Alcoholic debauchery was involved in some way, whether directly or not.

    I hugely doubt he was poisoned, for reasons related to what the author mentions about Alexander being unprepared. None of the soon-to-be Diadochoi were ready either. Usually, you don’t kill the ruling tyrant without a post-death action plan ready.

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  3. Hi Massimo,

    On the Aeon piece on righteous incivility, at first I was disappointed and confused until I realized that though he was using the usual arguments for incivility he was eventually breaking them down.

    “I doubt I can enumerate what genuinely righteous incivility would require, though I still believe it to exist …”

    I’m still not sure what to make of his last paragraphs. Not sure I disagree either, but I would have liked some kind of examples to better understand what he means by genuinely righteous incivility, and, why it wouldn’t also breakdown under scrutiny.

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