Stoic Wisdom

Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience

By: Nancy Sherman

Narrated by: Pam Ward

Drawing on the wisdom of Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and others, Nancy Sherman's Stoic Wisdom presents a compelling modern Stoicism that teaches grit, resilience, and the importance of close relationships in addressing life's biggest and smallest challenges.

A renowned expert in ancient and modern ethics, Sherman relates how Stoic methods of examining beliefs and perceptions can help us correct distortions in what we believe, see, and feel. Her study reveals a profound insight about the Stoics: They never believed, as Stoic popularizers often hold, that rugged self-reliance or indifference to the world around us is at the heart of living well. We are at home in the world, they insisted, when we are connected to each other in cooperative efforts. We build resilience and goodness through our deepest relationships.

Bringing ancient ideas to bear on 21st-century concerns, from workers facing stress and burnout to first responders in a pandemic, from soldiers on the battlefield to citizens fighting for racial justice, Sherman shows how Stoicism can help us fulfill the promise of our shared humanity. In nine lessons that combine ancient pithy quotes and daily exercises with contemporary ethics and psychology, Stoic Wisdom is a field manual for the art of living well.

©2021 Oxford University Press (P)2021 Gildan Media

A big letdown for fans of stoicism

When the author started mentioning, "white privilege" along with various BLM references and going as far as calling Michael Brown an innocent child murdered by police, I realized this was a virtue signaling, woke leftist propaganda book. I would not recommend this book and my biggest regret is wasting my time listening and reading it.

The author is a piously woke self righteous preener.

Terrible. The author is a left wing moralizer, trying to bootstrap stoic philosophy to her vacuous, socio-political reflections.

Sometimes she completely misses the mark

I wish there were less current political opinion and deeper analysis of Stoicism.

Sometimes she hits the mark when it comes to understanding certain Stoic practices but other times she completely misses.

Can we stop expecting people that lived in a different time and reality from us to have same values?

Preachy and disjointed

After reading Think Like a Stoic by Pigliuchi.. This book is a massive step back. It sounds preachy, uncoordinated, and emotional which is ironic as the book is about stoic wisdom.

Is the current political discourse really necessary?

I had great expectations for this book, but the constant left-leaning political commentary made it Ness art for me to skip over portions.

If by “modern stoicism” the author means “progressive” or “enlightened,” then she succeeded.

Alonso, it is set squarely in the pandemic and speaks almost exclusively to that past era.

But as a text for learning about ancient Stoicism and possible applications to today’s post-pandemic challenges, it failed me.