What does it mean to be stoic? Many of us assume it means you have a stiff upper lip, or that you suppress your emotions. That's what Massimo Pigliucci thought — until he started to peruse a book called Meditations. It was written nearly two thousand years ago by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. But Massimo, now a philosopher, says Meditations, and Stoic philosophy more broadly, offer wisdom that continues to speak to our lives. This week, we explore Stoic ideas and what they tell us about a life well lived. Do you have follow-up questions and ideas about stoicism after listening to this episode? If you’d be comfortable sharing your comments and questions with the Hidden Brain audience, please record a voice memo on your phone and email it to us at [email protected]. Use the subject line “stoicism.”
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This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedantam. To be human, to be alive, is to be vulnerable to sadness and suffering. For centuries, artists, writers, and thinkers have tried to capture what this feels like. The author William Styron once said, the great drizzle of horror induced by depression takes on the quality of physical pain.
But it is not an immediately identifiable pain like that of a broken limb. It may be more accurate to say that despair comes to resemble the diabolical discomfort of being imprisoned in a fiercely overheated room. And because no breeze stirs this cauldron, because there is no escape from the smothering confinement, it is entirely natural that the victim begins to think ceaselessly of oblivion.
Sometimes our suffering is connected to what we see in the world. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, who was already prone to depression, was often consumed by the horrors of the war. His secretary, John Hay, would note that he would sit for hours staring vacantly out the window, his face displaying the deepest sorrow imaginable.
But as long as humans have been suffering, humans have also been trying to find paths out of suffering. Philosophers, scientists, and spiritual leaders have offered many ideas on how to live a life of contentment. Today on the show, we explore the ideas of an unusual philosopher king who lived some 19 centuries ago.
There's a reason his meditations about a life worth living have survived nearly 2,000 years. Ancient ideas to help us find a way out of modern despondencies. This week on Hidden Brain. Most of us have been there, low points in our life when we look around and realize that something needs to change.
What we do in these moments can spell the difference between a life of well-being or a life of despair. At the City College of New York, philosopher Massimo Pagliucci has personal experience with such moments in his own life. Massimo Pagliucci, welcome to Hidden Brain.
It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.
Massimo, your world fell apart when you turned 40. Where were you living at the time?
I was in Knoxville, Tennessee, the buckle of the Bible belt, as they called it.
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