Videos

Stoicism, The School of Life, and suicide.

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I don’t always agree with the content of the thinkers highlighted by The School of Life, nor indeed with their interpretation of those thoughts.  However, this video came across the transom recently, and I thought it was a well-handled take on what is one of the more contentious aspects of Stoicism.

Epictetus’ reminder that the door is always open is probably the most meme-like distillation of the Stoic position on suicide.  There are few others positions which get such a heated debate by newcomers to the school and outsiders alike.  I spoke about this once before, and it still holds I think.

It is difficult to carefully handle such a topic, when emotions are high and the results seems to affect others sharply as they do the subject.  There is an opportunity to whitewash this position for the modern, and I think The School of Life did a good job of avoid that.

Socrates… and kids?

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I’ve been doing some reading on Socrates lately, and so the google algorithms decided I’d be interested in this video.  This is not an aspect of Socrates I’m very familiar with, and I’ve not yet read any Montaigne.  You may also find it interesting.

Cosmopolitanism is discussed, there’s a note of “shamelessness,” and maybe oikeiôsis too.

Michael Connell: Stoic Comedy

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I suppose the way that Stoics try to re-frame their perceptions and experiences of life would certainly seem funny from the outside.  Sometimes, it seems funny from the inside.  Michael has been posting videos of unique blend of comedy and philosophy for quite some time, but this is the longest special posted yet.

Feel free to trundle over to the YouTubes, give him a watch, a like, and a share.  The Stoic message is a powerful one, and new and creative avenues for spreading it are a good thing.

Plus, he’s pretty funny.