Massimo Pigliucci

get a hold of yourself and to manage things better than it would be if you were on your own.

But also, it is very stoic because the whole point, or a major point, I should say, of stoicism is, again, that we are pro-social animals.

We should always think about how our actions affect other people.

Epictetus taught his students that there are three

disciplines that they need to practice.

They're called the discipline of desire, the discipline of action, and the discipline of ascent.

Desire is about reminding yourself what's really good for you and what is not good for you, regardless of what other people tell you.

So in other words, it's about figuring out exactly your values and your dis-values, the kind of things that you think are important or not.

The second discipline, the one of action, is entirely devoted to how am I going to behave toward other people?

How am I going to put into practice my values and these values when it comes to other people?

Because we're always with other people.

We live in society.

Unless you're a Robinson Crusoe on a deserted island, you always live with other people.

You always interact with other people.

So the discipline of action matters.

becomes fundamental to the way you live your life.

The third one, by the way, the discipline of assent, is about making the first two automatic.

It's about training yourself to always trying to make the right decision, no matter the circumstances.

First of all, I think that...

The fact that she spent time with her friends before she died and did the things that her friends wanted to do, that's beautiful.