What kind of thing are we?

What does a historian of Stoicism actually believe? Michael puts his money where his mouth is and lays out his personal philosophy of life from scratch.

The result is something between Stoicism and Aristotle — keeping the Stoic emphasis on character and agency while smuggling in a little more common sense about the human condition.

(00:00) Why articulate a personal philosophy?

(04:00) The geometric method

(05:00) The eudaimonistic framework

(10:30) What kind of thing are we?

(16:30) Degrees of happiness

(22:00) Rejecting the Stoic binary

(24:00) Unequal agency, genuine hardship, and obligations to others

(32:00) The capabilities approach

(37:30) The Stoic counterargument

(44:30) Summary

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Thanks to Michael Levy for graciously letting us use his music in the conversations:

https://ancientlyre.com/