TODO_AUTHOR, (Irvine 2009)

Summary

Thoughts

Notes

A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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I saw no need to ponder a philosophy of life. I instead felt comfortable with what is, for almost everyone, the default philosophy of life: to spend one’s days seeking an interesting mix of affluence, social status, and pleasure. My philosophy of life, in other words, was what might charitably be called an enlightened form of hedonism. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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To begin with, I knew that the dictionary defines a stoic as “one who is seemingly indifferent to or unaf-fected by joy, grief, pleasure, or pain.“3 I therefore expected that the uppercase-S Stoics would be lowercase-s stoical—that they would be emotionally repressed individuals. I discovered, though, that the goal of the Stoics was not to banish emotion from life but to banish negative emotions. When I read the works of the Stoics, I encountered individuals who were cheerful and optimistic about life (even though they made it a point to spend time thinking about all the bad things that could happen to them) and who were fully capable of enjoying life’s pleasures (while at the same time being careful not to be enslaved by those pleasures). I also encountered, much to my surprise, individuals who valued joy; indeed, according to Seneca, what Stoics seek to discover “is how the mind may always pursue a steady and favourable course, may be well-disposed towards itself, and may view its conditions with joy.“4 He also asserts that someone who practices Stoic principles “must, whether he wills or not, necessarily be attended by constant cheerfulness and a joy that is deep and issues from deep within, since he finds delight in his own resources, and desires no joys greater than his inner joys.“5 Along similar lines, the Stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus tells us that if we live in accordance with Stoic principles, “a cheerful disposition and secure joy” will automatically follow.6 Rather than being passive individuals who were grimly resigned to being on the receiving end of the world’s abuse and injustice, the Stoics were fully engaged in life and worked hard to make the world a better place. Consider, for example, Cato the Younger. (Although he did not contribute to the literature of Stoicism, Cato was a practicing Stoic; indeed, Seneca refers to him as the perfect Stoic.)7 His Stoicism did not prevent Cato from fighting bravely to restore the Roman republic. Likewise, Seneca seems to have been remarkably energetic: Besides being a philosopher, he was a successful playwright, an advisor to an emperor, and the first-century equivalent of an investment banker. And Marcus Aurelius, besides being a philosopher, was a Roman emperor—indeed, arguably one of the greatest Roman emperors. As I read about the Stoics, I found myself filled with admiration for them. They were courageous, temperate, reasonable, and self-disciplined—traits I would like to possess. They also thought it important for us to fulfill our obligations and to help our fellow humans—values I happen to share. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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we are unlikely to have a good and meaningful life unless we can overcome our insatiability. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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persuade ourselves to want the things we already have. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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The challenge I faced in writing this book was to construct such a plan from clues scattered throughout Stoic writings. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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We will reconsider our goals in living. In particular, we will take to heart the Stoic claim that many of the things we desire—most notably, fame and fortune—are not worth pursuing. We will instead turn our attention to the pursuit of tranquility and what the Stoics called virtue. We will discover that Stoic virtue has very little in common with what people today mean by the word. We will also discover that the tranquility the Stoics sought is not the kind of tranquility that might be brought on by the ingestion of a tranquilizer; it is not, in other words, a zombie-like state. It is instead a state marked by the absence of negative emotions such as anger, grief, anxiety, and fear, and the presence of positive emotions—in particular, joy. We will study the various psychological techniques developed by the Stoics for attaining and maintaining tranquility, and we will employ these techniques in daily living. We will, for example, take care to distinguish between things we can control and things we can’t, so that we will no longer worry about the things we can’t control and will instead focus our attention on the things we can control. We will also recognize how easy it is for other people to disturb our tranquility, and we will therefore practice Stoic strategies to prevent them from upsetting us. Finally, we will become a more thoughtful observer of our own life. We will watch ourselves as we go about our daily business and will later refl ect on what we saw, trying to identify the sources of distress in our life and thinking about how to avoid that distress. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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Although modern philosophers tend to spend their days debating esoteric topics, the primary goal of most ancient philosophers was to help ordinary people live better lives. Stoicism, as we shall see, was one of the most popular and successful of the ancient schools of philosophy. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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philosophy of life ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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I wrote this book with the following question in mind: If the ancient Stoics had taken it upon themselves to write a guidebook for twenty-first-century individuals—a book that would tell us how to have a good life—what might that book have looked like? The pages that follow are my answer to this question. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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hunger to be the best appetizer, ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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teacher—wasn’t content simply with badgering the people he encountered on the street; he also entered people’s homes uninvited to admonish those within. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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hedonic adaptation. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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treadmill. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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creating in ourselves a desire for the things we already have. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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They recommended that we spend time imagining that we have lost the things we value—that our wife has left us, our car was stolen, or we lost our job. Doing this, the Stoics thought, will make us value our wife, our car, and our job more than we otherwise would. This technique—let us refer to it as negative visualization—was employed by the Stoics at least as far back as Chrysippus.5 It is, I think, the single most valuable technique in the Stoics’ psychological tool kit. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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In the very act of kissing the child, we should silently reflect on the possibility that she will die tomorrow.7 ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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We should live as if this very moment were our last.11 ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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To them, living as if each day were our last is simply an extension of the negative visualization technique: As we go about our day, we should periodically pause to reflect on the fact that we will not live forever and therefore that this day could be our last. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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Most of us are “living the dream”—living, that is, the dream we once had for ourselves. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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The claim is not that practicing it will make life as enjoyable for those who have nothing as it is for those who have much. The claim is merely that the practice of negative visualization—and more generally, the adoption of Stoicism—can take some of the sting out of having nothing and thereby make those who have nothing less miserable than they would otherwise be. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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We normally characterize an optimist as someone who sees his glass as being half full rather than half empty. For a Stoic, though, this degree of optimism would only be a starting point. After expressing his appreciation that his glass is half full rather than being completely empty, he will go on to express his delight in even having a glass: It could, after all, have been broken or stolen. And if he is atop his Stoic game, he might go on to comment about what an astonishing thing glass vessels are: They are cheap and fairly durable, impart no taste to what we put in them, and—miracle of miracles!—allow us to see what they contain. This might sound a bit silly, but to someone who has not lost his capacity for joy, the world is a wonderful place. To such a person, glasses are amazing; to everyone else, a glass is just a glass, and it is half empty to boot. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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But understood properly, saying grace—and for that matter, offering any prayer of thanks—is a form of negative visualization. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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there is a difference between contemplating something bad happening and worrying about it. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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it is a mistake to think Stoics will spend all their time contemplating potential catastrophes. It is instead something they will do periodically: A few times each day or a few times each week a Stoic will pause in his enjoyment of life to think about how all this, all these things he enjoys, could be taken from him. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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contemplate the impermanence of the world around us. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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any human activity that cannot be carried on indefinitely must have a final occurrence. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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gain contentment by changing ourselves—more precisely, by changing our desires. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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We can want things that are up to us, or we can want things that are not up to us. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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“Nothing is worth doing pointlessly.“11 ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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Thus, his goal in playing tennis will not be to win a match (something external, over which he has only partial control) but to play to the best of his ability in the match (something internal, over which he has complete control). By choosing this goal, he will spare himself frustration or disappointment should he lose the match: Since it was not his goal to win the match, he will not have failed to attain his goal, as long as he played his best. His tranquility will not be disrupted. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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our internal goals will affect our external performance, but they also realized that the goals we consciously set for ourselves can have a dramatic impact on our subsequent emotional state. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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to behave, to the best of my ability, in a lovable manner. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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internalizing his goals in daily life, the Stoic is able to preserve his tranquility while dealing with things over which he has only partial control. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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Although they value tranquility, they feel duty-bound to be active participants in the society in which they live. But such participation clearly puts their tranquility in jeopardy. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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practicing Stoic will keep the trichotomy of control firmly in mind as he goes about his daily affairs. He will perform a kind of triage in which he sorts the elements of his life into three categories: those over which he has complete control, those over which he has no control at all, and those over which he has some but not complete control. The things in the second category—those over which he has no control at all—he will set aside as not worth worrying about. In doing this, he will spare himself a great deal of needless anxiety. He will instead concern himself with things over which he has complete control and things over which he has some but not complete control. And when he concerns himself with things in this last category, he will be careful to set internal rather than external goals for himself and will thereby avoid a considerable amount of frustration and disappointment. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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despite their determinism, despite their belief that whatever happened had to happen, the ancients were not fatalistic about the future. The Stoics, for example, did not sit around apathetically, resigned to whatever the future held in store; to the contrary, they spent their days working to affect the outcome of future events. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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To solve this puzzle, we need to distinguish between fatalism with respect to the future and fatalism with respect to the past. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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Although the Stoics advocate fatalism, they seem not to have practiced it. What are we to make, then, of their advice that we take a fatalistic attitude toward the things that happen to us? ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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When the Stoics advocate fatalism, they are, I think, advocating a restricted form of the doctrine. More precisely, they are advising us to be fatalistic with respect to the past, to keep firmly in mind that the past cannot be changed. Thus, the Stoics would not counsel a mother with a sick child to be fatalistic with respect to the future; she should try to nurse the child back to health (even though the Fates have already decided whether the child lives or dies). But if the child dies, they will counsel this woman to be fatalistic with respect to the past. It is only natural, even for a Stoic, to experience grief after the death of a child. But to dwell on that death is a waste of time and emotions, inasmuch as the past cannot be changed. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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the Stoics are not suggesting that we should never think about it. We sometimes should think about the past to learn lessons that can help us in our efforts to shape the future. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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might make readers worry that the practice of Stoicism will lead to complacency. Readers might admit that the Stoics will be unusually satisfied with what they have, whatever it may be—a blessing, to be sure. But won’t the Stoics, as a result, be terribly unambitious? ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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Stoic philosophy, while teaching us to be satisfied with whatever we’ve got, also counsels us to seek certain things in life. We should, for example, strive to become better people—to become virtuous in the ancient sense of the word. We should strive to practice Stoicism in our daily life. And we should, as we shall see in chapter 9, strive to do our social duty: This is why Seneca and Marcus felt compelled to participate in government and why Musonius and Epictetus felt compelled to teach Stoicism. Furthermore, the Stoics see nothing wrong with our taking steps to enjoy the circumstances in which we find ourselves; indeed, Seneca advises us to be “attentive to all the advantages that adorn life.“6 We might, as a result, get married and have children. We might also form and enjoy friendships. And what about worldly success? Will the Stoics seek fame and fortune? They will not. The Stoics thought these things had no real value and consequently thought it foolish to pursue them, particularly if doing so disrupted our tranquility or required us to act in an unvirtuous manner. This indifference to worldly success, I realize, will make them seem unmo-tivated to modern individuals who spend their days working hard in an attempt to attain (a degree of ) fame and fortune. But having said this, I should add that although the Stoics didn’t seek worldly success, they often gained it anyway. Indeed, the Stoics we have been considering would all have counted as successful individuals in their time. Seneca and Marcus were both wealthy and famous, and Musonius and Epictetus, as heads of popular schools, would have enjoyed a degree of renown and would presumably have been financially comfortable. They therefore found themselves in the curious position of people who, though not seeking success, nevertheless gained it. In chapters 14 and 15 we will see how they dealt with this predicament. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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Seneca recommends an extension of this technique: Besides contemplating bad things happening, we should sometimes live as if they had happened. In particular, instead of merely thinking about what it would be like to lose our wealth, we should periodically “practice poverty”: We should, that is, content ourselves with “the scantiest and cheapest fare” and with “coarse and rough dress.“1 ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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Musonius takes this technique one step further: He thinks that besides living as if bad things had happened to us, we should sometimes cause them to happen. In particular, we should periodically cause ourselves to experience discomfort that we could easily have avoided. We might accomplish this by underdressing for cold weather or going shoeless. Or we might periodically allow ourselves to become thirsty or hungry, even though water and food are at hand, and we might sleep on a hard bed, even though a soft one is available.3 ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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Furthermore, they did not inflict these discomforts to punish themselves; rather, they did it to increase their enjoyment of life. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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welcomed a degree of discomfort in their life. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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harden ourselves against misfortunes that might befall us in the future. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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A person who periodically experiences minor discomforts will grow confident that he can withstand major discomforts as well, so the prospect of experiencing such discomforts at some future time will not, at present, be a source of anxiety for him. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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it helps us appreciate what we already have. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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the more pleasures a man captures, “the more masters will he have to serve.“5 ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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Pleasure, he cautions, “hatches no single plot but all kinds of plots, and aims to undo men through sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch, with food too, and drink and carnal lust, tempting the waking and the sleeping alike.” And pleasure, “with a stroke of her wand . . . cooly drives her victim into a sort of sty and pens him up, and now from that time forth the man goes on living as a pig or a wolf.“6 ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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they counsel us to be circumspect in our enjoyment of these things. There is, after all, a fine line between enjoying a meal and lapsing into gluttony. There is also a danger that we will cling to the things we enjoy. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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Seneca advises that we periodically meditate on the events of daily living, how we responded to these events, and how, in accordance with Stoic principles, we should have responded to them. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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When contemplating whether to criticize someone, he should consider not only whether the criticism is valid but also whether the person can stand to be criticized. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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We will, out of the blue, feel delighted to be the person we are, living the life we are living, in the universe we happen to inhabit. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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They thought that man is by nature a social animal and therefore that we have a duty to form and maintain relationships with other people, despite the trouble they might cause us. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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“fellowship is the purpose behind our creation.” Thus, a person who performs well the function of man will be both rational and social.4 ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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Our primary function, the Stoics thought, is to be rational. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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recommend that we prepare for our dealings with other people before we have to deal with them. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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A seeksorrow, he explains, is “one who contrives to give himself vexation.")5 ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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philosophies of life have two components: They tell us what things in life are and aren’t worth pursuing, and they tell us how to gain the things that are worth having. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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Among their recommendations were the following: ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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start with one technique and, having become proficient in it, go on to another. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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a good technique to start with, I think, is negative visualization. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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it is as important to engage in negative visualization when times are good as it is when times are bad. ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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move on to become proficient in applying the trichotomy of control, ======== A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (William Braxton Irvine)

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practice internalizing your goals. ========

Bibliography

Irvine, William Braxton. 2009. A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.