William B. Irvine is emeritus professor of philosophy at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, USA. He is the author of eight books that have been translated into more than twenty languages.  His A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy played a key role in the Stoic renaissance that has taken place in recent years. His subsequent The Stoic Challenge: A Philosopher’s Guide to Becoming Tougher, Calmer, and More Resilient provides a strategy for dealing, in proper Stoic manner, with the setbacks we experience in daily living.  He is currently at work on a book about thinking critically, but with an open mind, in the age of the internet.

"Stoicism started in 300 B.C. in Athens. Zeno of Citium was the first Stoic. He created it. He put together components of some other then existing schools of philosophy and started his own school, but what we know primarily are the Roman Stoics. So this would be in the first century B.C. and the first century A.D. in Rome. And the four big names are Marcus Aurelius (who was also an emperor), Seneca (who was also a playright and the first century equivalent of a billionaire), an interestingly complex guy, and Epictetus (who was a successful head of a school of philosophy). Fourth name (less known, but a very important Roman Stoic) is Musonius Rufus, who was actually the teacher of Epictetus. And the interesting thing is, all four of them, you can pick up and start reading them, and you will very quickly sort of say – Oh, I see what they're doing. And I see why it's relevant to my life. And I see how it can be useful to my life.”

www.williambirvine.com

The Stoic Challenge

www.creativeprocess.info

www.oneplanetpodcast.org

Photo credit: Lyndon French