The Stoic Life
Applying Ancient Wisdom to Modern Demands
The five foundational courses of Askesis establish the philosophical architecture of Stoicism with the rigour the tradition demands. This sixth course does something different: it takes that architecture into the specific, recurring pressures of contemporary life — work, money, relationships, grief, anger, distraction, and the examined life itself. Each lesson moves between ancient text and modern situation, asking not only what the Stoics believed but how, precisely, their beliefs should change the way we live on a Tuesday afternoon. The result is a course that is both philosophically serious and immediately practical — a bridge between the tradition and the life you are actually living. Eight in-depth lessons for anyone who has studied Stoicism and now wants to live it.
Course Lessons
Stoicism at Work
FreeWork is the primary arena in which most people test their philosophy — or discover they have none. This lesson applies Stoic principles to the specific pressures of professional life: ambition, recognition, difficult colleagues, failure, and the question of what work is actually for.
Stoicism and Money
Money is the subject on which modern culture is most confused and ancient philosophy most clear. This lesson examines the Stoic account of wealth, poverty, financial anxiety, and the relationship between money and the good life.
Stoicism and Relationships
The Stoics were not cold rationalists indifferent to human connection. They developed a sophisticated account of love, friendship, and family that is both philosophically rigorous and deeply humane. This lesson examines what Stoic philosophy actually says about our most important relationships.
Stoicism and Anger
Seneca devoted an entire treatise to anger — the most destructive of the passions and the one most relevant to modern life. This lesson examines the Stoic analysis of anger, its causes, its costs, and the philosophical practices that transform it.
Stoicism and Grief
Grief is the most universal of human experiences and the one that most directly tests our philosophy. This lesson examines the Stoic account of loss — not as a counsel of cold detachment, but as a framework for navigating grief with both honesty and philosophical integrity.
Stoicism and Distraction
The Stoics identified distraction — the failure to attend fully to what matters — as one of the primary obstacles to the philosophical life. In an age of engineered attention capture, their analysis is more urgent than ever.
Stoicism and the Examined Life
Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. The Stoics took this seriously and developed specific practices for living examined — the evening review, the morning meditation, the philosophical journal. This lesson examines what the examined life actually looks like in practice.
Living Stoically: The Integrated Practice
The final lesson of the course asks the hardest question: what does it actually look like to live as a Stoic in the twenty-first century? Not as a historical exercise, but as a genuine philosophical practice that integrates all of the tradition's resources into a coherent way of life.