--- title: Stoicism description: This topic explores the ancient Hellenistic philosophy of Stoicism, focusing on the works of Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. You will understand its practical ethics, logic, and techniques for cultivating resilience. category: social-sciences subcategory: philosophy difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/stoicism --- # Stoicism This topic explores the ancient Hellenistic philosophy of Stoicism, focusing on the works of Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. You will understand its practical ethics, logic, and techniques for cultivating resilience. ## Available Resources 1 Videos • 6 Books • 1 Courses • 3 Websites ## Podcasts ### 1. The Daily Stoic Podcast **Author:** Ryan Holiday Daily podcast hosted by author Ryan Holiday, pairing short readings from Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Epictetus with commentary, listener questions and interviews. It covers applying Stoic ideas such as the dichotomy of control, discipline and virtue to work, relationships and everyday decisions. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://dailystoic.com/podcast/ **Tags:** stoicism, marcus-aurelius, seneca, epictetus, practical-philosophy ## Videos ### 1. Epictetus' Discourses — Core Concept Video and Podcast Series (Gregory Sadler) **Author:** Gregory B. Sadler Index of 46 short video lectures and matching podcast episodes by philosopher Gregory Sadler, each unpacking one concept, argument, or exercise from Epictetus' Discourses. Works as a per-chapter companion while reading the text, organised into seven thematic groups. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://gregorybsadler.substack.com/p/video-and-podcast-resources-on-epictetus **Tags:** epictetus, discourses, stoicism, lecture-series, ancient-philosophy ## Books ### 1. Epictetus: Discourses, Fragments, Handbook (trans. Robin Hard) **Author:** Epictetus; translated by Robin Hard The only complete modern English translation of Epictetus' Discourses, bundled with the Handbook and surviving fragments, plus Christopher Gill's introduction. Gives the full argument behind the dichotomy of control, prohairesis, and the discipline of assent, not just the aphorisms. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0199595186?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** epictetus, discourses, enchiridion, primary-text, translation ### 2. The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius **Author:** Pierre Hadot (trans. Michael Chase) Scholarly commentary reconstructing the philosophical system behind Marcus Aurelius's private notebooks and mapping them onto Epictetus's three disciplines of assent, desire, and action. It explains why the Meditations repeat themselves and what that repetition was for. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0674007077?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** marcus-aurelius, meditations, pierre-hadot, commentary, spiritual-exercises ### 3. Stoicism (Ancient Philosophies series) **Author:** John Sellars Academic introduction structured by the Stoics' own division of philosophy into logic, physics, and ethics, reconstructed from fragments in Plutarch and Stobaeus. It supplies the doctrinal system the surviving Roman texts assume but never spell out. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0520249089?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** stoicism, stoic-logic, stoic-physics, stoic-ethics, ancient-philosophy ### 4. Seneca: Letters on Ethics — To Lucilius **Author:** Seneca (trans. Margaret Graver and A. A. Long) All 124 letters from Seneca to Lucilius in the first complete modern English translation, with running commentary. You can trace how Stoic positions on grief, illness, wealth, and death are argued and qualified rather than simply asserted. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/022652843X?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** seneca, moral-letters, translation, roman-stoicism, primary-text ### 5. Meditations **Author:** Marcus Aurelius Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius's personal philosophical reflections on Stoic philosophy, virtue, mortality, and living according to nature. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-New-Translation-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/0812968255?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** book, humanities-history, philosophy ### 6. Meditations **Author:** Marcus Aurelius Private notebooks a Roman emperor wrote to himself on duty, mortality, anger, and self-control. Reading them gives a first-hand view of Stoic practice as applied ethics rather than theory, and a sense of how Stoics reasoned through daily difficulty. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0812968255?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** stoicism, ancient-philosophy, ethics, primary-sources, marcus-aurelius ## Websites ### 1. Seneca — Moral Letters to Lucilius (complete, Gummere translation) **Author:** Lucius Annaeus Seneca Complete free text of Seneca's 124 letters to Lucilius in Richard Gummere's Loeb translation, one page per letter. Covers Stoic practice on death, friendship, anger, wealth, and time, in the form Seneca actually wrote rather than excerpted quotations. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius **Tags:** seneca, moral-letters, primary-text, roman-stoicism, public-domain ### 2. Stoicism (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy) **Author:** Massimo Pigliucci Encyclopedia entry by philosopher Massimo Pigliucci tracing Stoicism from Zeno to present-day practice, with sections on logic, physics, ethics, the passions, and the cognitive-behavioural therapy connection, plus a glossary of technical terms. A readable orientation before tackling the primary texts. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://iep.utm.edu/stoicism/ **Tags:** stoicism, encyclopedia, stoic-ethics, ancient-philosophy, overview ### 3. Stoicism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) **Author:** Marion Durand, Simon Shogry, Dirk Baltzly Peer-reviewed encyclopedia entry covering Stoic logic, physics, and ethics as one interlocking system, cited to Chrysippus, Stobaeus, and Cicero. After reading it you can situate Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius inside the school's full doctrinal framework. It treats Stoicism as a system in which ethics depends on physics and logic, not as a set of coping tips. Everything is sourced to ancient testimonia rather than paraphrase. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism/ **Tags:** stoicism, stoic-logic, stoic-physics, encyclopedia, ancient-philosophy ## Courses ### 1. Modern Stoicism Free Courses: Stoic Week and SMRT **Author:** Modern Stoicism (Christopher Gill, Tim LeBon, Donald Robertson, Eve Riches) Free structured courses from the academic-run Modern Stoicism project: the seven-day Stoic Week and the four-week Stoic Mindfulness and Resilience Training. Participants perform specific Stoic exercises daily and complete standard psychological measures before and after. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://learn.modernstoicism.com/ **Tags:** stoic-week, stoic-practice, modern-stoicism, free-course, resilience ## Youtubes ### 1. Greg Sadler - Epictetus - Enchiridion Course **Author:** Gregory B. Sadler Twenty-one roughly half-hour videos working through Epictetus's Handbook chapter by chapter, skipping nothing. Sadler unpacks each passage's argument and worked examples, so you can read the text closely instead of extracting slogans from it. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcAWwXKC0MNr9SrKoUFWeQtGltQIG7DyY **Tags:** epictetus, enchiridion, commentary, lecture-series, stoicism --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/stoicism