Stoicism – A Very Short Introduction

Readers of reviews in this journal will be aware that there has been something of a revival of Stoicism, which this book takes into account. Interestingly, the emphasis seems to be largely on Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus, who address ethical themes and the good life; Seneca is also quite popular and new editions of Stoic texts are being published by Princeton University Press. This book shows that ethics is one of three major concerns for this philosophical school, the others being physics and logic (including the nature of rationality). The book is a very good place to start and contains extensive extracts from key texts.