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forgottensecret 's review for:
The Little Book of Stoicism: Timeless Wisdom to Gain Resilience, Confidence, and Calmness
by Jonas Salzgeber, Nils Salzgeber
'Stoicism teaches us to live by a set of values that contribute to emotional resilience, calm confidence, and a clear direction in life. Just like an old reliable walking stick, it’s a guide to life based on reason rather than faith, a guide that supports us in the pursuit of self-mastery, perseverance, and wisdom. Stoicism makes us better human beings and teaches us how to excel in life.'
The Little Book of Stoicism by Jonas Salzgeber is a practical book. His ardour for Stoicism and its practitioners are matched by his ability to summarise its main teachings, interspersed by a brief historical overview.
As someone who has read the three main Stoics along with Donald Robertson's works, I appreciated the intention of this book. One can leave Epictetus's Enchidrion and his Discourses, or Seneca's Letters to Lucilius and still feel unable to pin down the Stoic's modus operandi. This sentiment is shared by Salzgeber and partly fuels his exposition.
The book is split into two parts, consisting of four chapters each:
Part 1: What is Stoicism
Chapter 1 The Promise of Stoic Philosophy
Chapter 2 A Quick History Lesson
Chapter 3 The Stoic Happiness Triangle
Chapter 4 The Villain: Negative Emotions Get in the Way
Part 2: 55 Stoicism Practices
Chapter 5 How to Practice Stoicism?
Chapter 6 Preparing Practices
Chapter 7 Situational Practices: How to Deal with Yourself when Life gets Tough?
Chapter 8 Situational Practices: How to Handle Yourself when Other People Challenge You
His most novel contribution might be the 'Stoic Happiness Triangle'. As he explains, although he had read a lot of Stoic work, he could not distill the essence of their teachings. This is where the Stoic Happiness Triangle was born, which gives a graphical summary of the core principles of Stoicism. He prefaces its presentation by saying, 'And keep in mind that the Stoic Happiness Triangle is not what the Stoics taught per se, it's my visualization of their core teachings.' The triangle is composed of three vertices: 'Live with Arete', 'Focus on what you can Control' and 'Take Responsibility', with 'Eudaimonia' at the centre.
Why is eudaimonia so central? Because the ancient philosophies all converged in agreement to eudaimonia's role in living well, which he unpacks earlier in the book with a lovely corresponding visual and the following explanation:
'Imagine the best version of yourself. Look inside, do you see and know who that highest version of you is, the one who acts right in all situations, the one who makes no mistakes and seems unbeatable? If you’re anything like me and have been trying to improve yourself, then you probably know this ideal version of yourself. Well, in Greek, this best version would be the inner daimon, an inner spirit or divine spark. For the Stoics and all other schools of ancient philosophy, the ultimate goal of life was eudaimonia, to become good (eu) with your inner daimon.'
A crucial distinction that Salzgeber makes and that I welcome as an addition to modern living, is that this highest version is not promised to some and absent for others. This inner daimon remains dormant, in spite of our (sometimes) active misalignment from it. There is only one person in the relationship who does the abandoning (you!). As a consequence, this erases the necessity to be born into the right family or in the right place. More importantly, it unbinds one from the belief that they are forever solidified into an undesired character or personality, but instead:
'The Stoics believed that nature wants us to become that highest version of ourselves. This is why the inner daimon (or divine spark) has been planted within all of us like a seed, so that we have it in our natural potential to become that highest version of ourselves. In other words, it’s our nature to complete what’s been started with that divine seed and bring our human potential to life. To become good with our inner daimon, to live in harmony with our ideal self is, therefore, to get as close as possible to that high potential self.'
This seed is always there, no matter our unconscious, obtuse attempts to stamp out its residue. This offering of partnered agency, to know that nature is almost championing for us to become the best version of ourselves is uplifting. There is a companion in this quest to attain eudaimonia.
So, if we decide that yes, there is this inner daimon that is the highest version of ourselves, how do we more closely align with that ideal? Again, the Stoics have a word for this. To reach that state of eudaimonia, we must live with arete. The direct translation of this word is 'excellence' or 'virtue' but this definition is too vague. A better definition might be, 'expressing the highest version of yourself in every moment'. A similar translation is given by one of my favourite people, Brian Johnson, who writes that arete is 'Expressing the highest version of yourself moment to moment to moment.' The word arete is not limited to the Stoics, with it being a word a mother in ancient Greece might tell her child to live with as they practice for the Olympics. On Youtube, Johnson illustrates arete by drawing a gap between what we're actually doing and what we're capable of doing. We close that gap by living with arete. But say that we choose not to, what would the consequences be? Well, that gap is also the residence of anxiety, regret, feelings of worthlesness, shame, etc. Therefore, this is not a neutral choice. The emotions of anxiety, regret and shame are the promise of failing to live up to this highest possible version of ourselves. For a modern version, this is closely related to Abraham Maslow's famous aphorism, 'what one can be, one must be.'
Overall, 'The Little Book of Stoicism' synthesises the teachings of the Stoics. Donald Robertson's 'Stoicism and the Art of Happiness' is much more in depth but Salzgeber and his Stoic Happiness Triangle have really solidified the core aims of Stoicism in a way in which Robertson didn't manage to. The order in which I read them probably does enhance my appreciation of Salzgeber's terseness.
The Little Book of Stoicism by Jonas Salzgeber is a practical book. His ardour for Stoicism and its practitioners are matched by his ability to summarise its main teachings, interspersed by a brief historical overview.
As someone who has read the three main Stoics along with Donald Robertson's works, I appreciated the intention of this book. One can leave Epictetus's Enchidrion and his Discourses, or Seneca's Letters to Lucilius and still feel unable to pin down the Stoic's modus operandi. This sentiment is shared by Salzgeber and partly fuels his exposition.
The book is split into two parts, consisting of four chapters each:
Part 1: What is Stoicism
Chapter 1 The Promise of Stoic Philosophy
Chapter 2 A Quick History Lesson
Chapter 3 The Stoic Happiness Triangle
Chapter 4 The Villain: Negative Emotions Get in the Way
Part 2: 55 Stoicism Practices
Chapter 5 How to Practice Stoicism?
Chapter 6 Preparing Practices
Chapter 7 Situational Practices: How to Deal with Yourself when Life gets Tough?
Chapter 8 Situational Practices: How to Handle Yourself when Other People Challenge You
His most novel contribution might be the 'Stoic Happiness Triangle'. As he explains, although he had read a lot of Stoic work, he could not distill the essence of their teachings. This is where the Stoic Happiness Triangle was born, which gives a graphical summary of the core principles of Stoicism. He prefaces its presentation by saying, 'And keep in mind that the Stoic Happiness Triangle is not what the Stoics taught per se, it's my visualization of their core teachings.' The triangle is composed of three vertices: 'Live with Arete', 'Focus on what you can Control' and 'Take Responsibility', with 'Eudaimonia' at the centre.
Why is eudaimonia so central? Because the ancient philosophies all converged in agreement to eudaimonia's role in living well, which he unpacks earlier in the book with a lovely corresponding visual and the following explanation:
'Imagine the best version of yourself. Look inside, do you see and know who that highest version of you is, the one who acts right in all situations, the one who makes no mistakes and seems unbeatable? If you’re anything like me and have been trying to improve yourself, then you probably know this ideal version of yourself. Well, in Greek, this best version would be the inner daimon, an inner spirit or divine spark. For the Stoics and all other schools of ancient philosophy, the ultimate goal of life was eudaimonia, to become good (eu) with your inner daimon.'
A crucial distinction that Salzgeber makes and that I welcome as an addition to modern living, is that this highest version is not promised to some and absent for others. This inner daimon remains dormant, in spite of our (sometimes) active misalignment from it. There is only one person in the relationship who does the abandoning (you!). As a consequence, this erases the necessity to be born into the right family or in the right place. More importantly, it unbinds one from the belief that they are forever solidified into an undesired character or personality, but instead:
'The Stoics believed that nature wants us to become that highest version of ourselves. This is why the inner daimon (or divine spark) has been planted within all of us like a seed, so that we have it in our natural potential to become that highest version of ourselves. In other words, it’s our nature to complete what’s been started with that divine seed and bring our human potential to life. To become good with our inner daimon, to live in harmony with our ideal self is, therefore, to get as close as possible to that high potential self.'
This seed is always there, no matter our unconscious, obtuse attempts to stamp out its residue. This offering of partnered agency, to know that nature is almost championing for us to become the best version of ourselves is uplifting. There is a companion in this quest to attain eudaimonia.
So, if we decide that yes, there is this inner daimon that is the highest version of ourselves, how do we more closely align with that ideal? Again, the Stoics have a word for this. To reach that state of eudaimonia, we must live with arete. The direct translation of this word is 'excellence' or 'virtue' but this definition is too vague. A better definition might be, 'expressing the highest version of yourself in every moment'. A similar translation is given by one of my favourite people, Brian Johnson, who writes that arete is 'Expressing the highest version of yourself moment to moment to moment.' The word arete is not limited to the Stoics, with it being a word a mother in ancient Greece might tell her child to live with as they practice for the Olympics. On Youtube, Johnson illustrates arete by drawing a gap between what we're actually doing and what we're capable of doing. We close that gap by living with arete. But say that we choose not to, what would the consequences be? Well, that gap is also the residence of anxiety, regret, feelings of worthlesness, shame, etc. Therefore, this is not a neutral choice. The emotions of anxiety, regret and shame are the promise of failing to live up to this highest possible version of ourselves. For a modern version, this is closely related to Abraham Maslow's famous aphorism, 'what one can be, one must be.'
Overall, 'The Little Book of Stoicism' synthesises the teachings of the Stoics. Donald Robertson's 'Stoicism and the Art of Happiness' is much more in depth but Salzgeber and his Stoic Happiness Triangle have really solidified the core aims of Stoicism in a way in which Robertson didn't manage to. The order in which I read them probably does enhance my appreciation of Salzgeber's terseness.