A Guide to the Good Life • Hacker News Board

Re: A Guide to the Good Life

#11

Post by jonnybgood » Thu, Mar 20, 2014, 1:56 AM UTC

choxi wrote: post #7

acabal wrote: post #2

I read this a long time ago and I can't recommend it enough. It does a good job of introducing the concepts of stoicism and defending the philosophy from our modern assumptions of the word. A very good read. The word 'stoicism' has kind of a bad rap, but I find it a very peaceful and comforting philosophy, and one I actively try to model my life against. Like most life philosophies it's not something that comes natur…

Be careful with the translation you get of Meditations: if the first few paragraphs seem excruciatingly baroque, then you got a bad one--drop it and find a better translation. I downloaded the one that's free off of iBooks and it was impossible to read. Could you recommend a better translation?

I enjoyed this one. It was an easy going read.

http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Penguin-Great-Marcus-Aurel...

Re: A Guide to the Good Life

#12

Post by jonnybgood » Thu, Mar 20, 2014, 1:59 AM UTC

brc wrote: post #9

acabal wrote: post #2

I read this a long time ago and I can't recommend it enough. It does a good job of introducing the concepts of stoicism and defending the philosophy from our modern assumptions of the word. A very good read. The word 'stoicism' has kind of a bad rap, but I find it a very peaceful and comforting philosophy, and one I actively try to model my life against. Like most life philosophies it's not something that comes natur…

Well...can you give a recommended translation?

This was the best translation I've found.

http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Penguin-Great-Marcus-Aurel...

Re: A Guide to the Good Life

#13

Post by elf_m_sternberg » Thu, Mar 20, 2014, 2:07 AM UTC

Ditto everyone else's comments. This is a really good book. Readers should be aware that Irvine's goal of "persistent tranquility" isn't really what the Stoics had in mind; their objective was much more radical, in the same way that TED-talk "mindfulness" is a parboiled version of a much more radical Buddhism.

But still, a good intro.

There are other good Stoicism books, and anyone who's been through cognitive behavioral therapy will find Irvine's book a bit of a refresher course. Anyone have any comments about "Philosophy for Life" or "Stocism and the Art of Happiness"?

Re: A Guide to the Good Life

#14

Post by countersixte » Thu, Mar 20, 2014, 2:31 AM UTC

choxi wrote: post #7

acabal wrote: post #2

I read this a long time ago and I can't recommend it enough. It does a good job of introducing the concepts of stoicism and defending the philosophy from our modern assumptions of the word. A very good read. The word 'stoicism' has kind of a bad rap, but I find it a very peaceful and comforting philosophy, and one I actively try to model my life against. Like most life philosophies it's not something that comes natur…

Be careful with the translation you get of Meditations: if the first few paragraphs seem excruciatingly baroque, then you got a bad one--drop it and find a better translation. I downloaded the one that's free off of iBooks and it was impossible to read. Could you recommend a better translation?

I recently read the Gregory Hays translation [1] and thought it was great. Meditations was Marcus Aurelius's "notes to self" and the Hays edition captures this informal nature. It makes for an easy and delightful read.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-New-Translation-Marcus-Aur...

Re: A Guide to the Good Life

#15

Post by _bfhp » Thu, Mar 20, 2014, 3:12 AM UTC

"Following Socrates, the Stoics held that unhappiness and evil are the results of human ignorance of the reason in nature. If someone is unkind, it is because they are unaware of their own universal reason, which leads to the conclusion of kindness." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism#Stoic_ethics_and_virt...

That's often not why people are unkind. People can be unkind because of specific systems we can name, like racism. How does this philosophy (with "justice" as one of the four tenants) propose a person approaches power structures?

Re: A Guide to the Good Life

#16

Post by rpicard » Thu, Mar 20, 2014, 3:15 AM UTC

waterfowl wrote: post #4

This is a really good book. I think it was promoted on one of the big financial independence blogs a year or two ago and I enjoyed reading it a lot. Makes you think a lot.

I started reading a little about stoicism after seeing it on Mr. Money Mustache a year or so ago. That might be what you're thinking of.

Like a lot of other people, the philosophy was something I had been practicing in a raw form for a while, but seeing it codified makes it much easier to really put it to use.

Re: A Guide to the Good Life

#17

Post by yarrel » Thu, Mar 20, 2014, 3:37 AM UTC

_bfhp wrote: post #15

"Following Socrates, the Stoics held that unhappiness and evil are the results of human ignorance of the reason in nature. If someone is unkind, it is because they are unaware of their own universal reason, which leads to the conclusion of kindness." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism#Stoic_ethics_and_virt... That's often not why people are unkind. People can be unkind because of specific systems we can name, l…

Those systems are not supernatural though.

Do you believe racism is rational?

Re: A Guide to the Good Life

#18

Post by flycaliguy » Thu, Mar 20, 2014, 3:40 AM UTC

This is my game changer read, excited to see it here. Everything from dealing with my father's death to that black emptiness I've fought my entire life, I've read this book a few times now. It has a lot in common with Cognitive Therapy but doesn't require filling out mood journals (does anybody actually manage to do that?)

It serves as an excellent intro to Seneca's Letter's from a Stoic, which is another great book to revisit over the years.

There are some samples from the book available on Boing Boing (http://boingboing.net/author/william_b_irvine).

Re: A Guide to the Good Life

#19

Post by lpolovets » Thu, Mar 20, 2014, 3:55 AM UTC

If anyone's interested, I posted thorough notes for the book about a year ago: https://booknotes.quora.com/Notes-on-A-Guide-to-the-Good-Lif...

Re: A Guide to the Good Life

#20

Post by RockyMcNuts » Thu, Mar 20, 2014, 5:00 AM UTC

Philosophy, Stoicism, Buddhism are helpful in dealing with reality, adversity, mortality etc. But to deal with people you still need positive thinking, love, the Dale Carnegie, Stephen Covey etc. self-help canon. A yin and yang dichotomy, not mutually exclusive, but complementary.