/lit/ - Literature

>Turn your mind to, Meditations™

Jesus really?

So /lit/ I don't really read very often besides stuff on the internet but I've been wondering if reading some classic philosophy, like Epictetus' Discourses/Fragments/Enchiridiom or Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, will improve my quality of life. My question is how practical are these books and will I actually come away with useful ideas that I didn't already have? Do you have any book recs, stoic or otherwise? Should I be looking into something else entirely?

Aphoristic ""literature"

What is there to be gained in reading aphoristic lit?

Can anyone recommend any books on Stoicism? I've never taken a philosophy course or anything but this has me very interested.

What is the best genre? And why is it aphoristic?

>>7936556
>>7936547

what the fuck man. I'm going through stoic texts here trying to adopt them to literally will myself into normalcy. To be less bitter, cynical and pathetic and adopt a stoic approach to life.

what problems do you have with it?

>>7768779

Although I haven't reached the point of cynicism and bitterness that he has, I feel that I'm half way there. However, I haven't given up hope on myself and I am not impoverished which i think gives me less reason to bitch about being a loser. I do not think that my life is utterly hopeless like he does but I agree with him when he talks about the failure of "winners" at understanding the "loser". He nailed the platitudes and trite bullshit advice they throw at you and the pity with which they look at you when they trivialize your problem to something seemingly insignificant for them.

>Just talk to people
>Go to a bar and strike up a conversation

I have gotten this a million times and the one person who is closest to what I call a friend utterly fails to realize or even remotely understand what it truly feels like to hate oneself to the extent that I do.

His critique of well adjusted people is spot on.
But I do not agree that there is no avenue of improvement. There is hope. I have been reading some of the stuff that anons on this board have recommended (including the stoics) and I have not given up on my life yet...

The case that above anon made is for an utterly impoverished person who has had the worst in every aspect of a social and personal life and in such an extreme case, I would argue that breaking the vicious self-destructive cycle might be almost impossible.

But for anyone who is not afflicted with such a terrible life of poverty and abuse, I think there is hope. At least I would like to believe so.

How did this guy understand it all over 2000 years ago?

>set myself no schedule
>go on internet all day
>set myself a schedule, with planned free time and reading periods
>if I follow the schedule I read much more than I do now, do shitloads of work, and go to the gym the same amount of times
>feel hesitant in starting it because it's like capitalism is cucking me

How do I get over these feels... or should I?

>jus b good
>jus b yourself
>if you feel bad then just stop feeling bad
>being bad is bad but being good is not bad, it is good

Jesus christ, the reason the greeks and romans are so worshipped is that back then a lot less had been said or written so when you started talking there's a good chance that what you're saying qualifies as cutting edge philosophy just because it hadn't been said before

Can we discuss Stoicism?

I finished Meditations the other day, and enjoyed it. But I've been thinking about Stoicism in depth, and it's become clear to me that it only makes sense on a surface level.

It sounds very nice, especially if you struggle with being selfish or impatient, and consider these things to be undesirable. It seems like the perfect antidote, as a life-guiding set of principles, for dealing with certain 'destructive' emotional habits. With its aim of harmonizing the individual to live in accordance with logos, it seems like it's ideal for achieving balance in life.

The problem, as I see it, is that it elevates principled virtues above emotion too much. It cuts off an entire realm of human experience with its denial of sensual experience, and its reduction/elimination of (passionate) feeling. Isn't that a huge part of what makes us human beings? Their conception of 'Nature' arbitrarily removes our feelings, our desires, our impulses, under the pretext of 'misperceptions.' They set up a false dichotomy of rational vs. irrational, and randomly proclaim the latter inferior and subordinate, even though it's an irremovable part of who (or what) we are.

Why can't our feelings and desires be considered a part of nature, if everything that exists necessarily aligns with the logos? Wouldn't it be better to accept that part of ourselves, as they suggest that everything else should be accepted? Won't denying it create more pain and suffering than one would experience otherwise?

Lets start a Stoicism discussion thread.

Currently reading Meditations by Aurelius.

What do you think about stoicism?

Where should I start with the Stoics?

What is a good book on pre-socratic philosophers?

I have Plato and Aristotle but I want to start at the very beginning.

What is the difference between good philosophy and bad pihilosophy?

What are the essential works of stoicism?

Everything sucks but you can't change it so chill out

Reading Meditations right now (and bits of Historical context).

How is this guy not revered along with Jesus and Gandhi?

What's the best translation for Marcus Aurelius's "Meditations"?

>Further, I am thankful to the gods that I was not longer brought up with my grandfather's concubine, and that I preserved the flower of my youth, and that I did not make proof of my virility before the proper season, but even deferred the time...
lol virgin

>Cognitive therapy (CT) is a type of psychotherapy developed by American psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck. CT is one of the therapeutic approaches within the larger group of cognitive behavioral therapies (CBT) and was first expounded by Beck in the 1960s. Cognitive therapy seeks to help the patient overcome difficulties by identifying and changing dysfunctional thinking, behavior, and emotional responses. This involves helping patients develop skills for modifying beliefs, identifying distorted thinking, relating to others in different ways, and changing behaviors.Treatment is based on collaboration between patient and therapist and on testing beliefs.
>Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early 3rd century BCE. The Stoics taught that destructive emotions resulted from errors in judgment, and that a sage, or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not suffer such emotions.
>"Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All of these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill... I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him; for we have come into the world to work together..."
>A cognitive bias is a pattern of deviation in judgment, whereby inferences about other people and situations may be drawn in an illogical fashion. Individuals create their own “subjective social reality” from their perception of the input. An individual’s construction of social reality, not the objective input, may dictate their behaviour in the social world. Thus, cognitive biases may sometimes lead to perceptual distortion, inaccurate judgment, illogical interpretation, or what is broadly called irrationality.
So, I guess Stoicism is the true philosophy?

Why aren't you a stoic yet?