Suggested Readings
A few recommendations by Figs in Winter for your reading pleasure
PhilosophyCulture
Figs in Winter.
Massimo Pigliucci on Stoicism, skepticism, and living meaningfully through reason.
Recent essays
30 of 68Gaius Blossius, the revolutionary Stoic
Who said Stoicism is about quietism and inaction?
On the indispensability of logic
The Discourses of Epictetus, 1.17
Video: How to be Stoic
Episode 30 of Ars Vivendi: Conversations on the art of living
Conceptual stretching: why everyone you dislike is a fascist, or a communist, or both – Part II
The Right side of the equation
Conceptual stretching: why everyone you dislike is a fascist, or a communist, or both – Part I
A handy-dandy field guide to the (Far) Left and the (Far) Right
Suggested Readings
A few recommendations by Figs in Winter for your reading pleasure
Stoicism and wealth
Is there a tension between Stoic philosophy and externals like wealth and luxury?
Teleology vs teleonomy: is it purpose, or does it just look like it?
There’s a crucial distinction in the philosophy of biology that everyone ought to know about
Video: How to find happiness
Episode 29 of Ars Vivendi: Conversations on the art of living
Reading Greek, missing the point – part II
On Mary Beard, Emily Wilson, and the difference between knowing a text and knowing a philosophy
Reading Greek, missing the point – part I
Mary Beard, Emily Wilson, and what classicists get wrong about Stoicism
Video: How to feel
Episode 28 of Ars Vivendi: Conversations on the art of living
The past is not a defendant
Criticizing earlier cultures is lazy and useless, we should learn from them instead
Early Socratic dialogues: Hippias Major
What is fineness?
In the Media
A look at recent public appearances by yours truly
Zombie Freud, part II
The empirical record and its mismatch with the theory
Zombie Freud, part I
Psychoanalysis has been killed many times over. Why does it keep getting up?
Video: How to travel
Episode 27 of Ars Vivendi: Conversations on the art of living
What kinds of things are living organisms?
The forgotten middle path between clockwork and magic
How to find happiness with Cicero
Part XLI of the Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers series
Suggested Readings
A few recommendations by Figs in Winter for your reading pleasure
The idea of a university (and that of a professor)
Where does higher education come from, and where is it going?
Pro Academia
Cicero defends himself and his philosophy against a misguided Pyrrhonist
Video: How to have willpower
Episode 26 of Ars Vivendi: Conversations on the art of living
When pseudoscience is in power
The horoscope is near-harmless, until it moves into the ministry
What philosophy promises
The Discourses of Epictetus, 1.15
From the Archive
The Figs in Winter archive is deep, here are some choice bits
How to travel with Herodotus & friends
Part XL of the Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers series
Leo XIV’s encyclical on AI
A secular-Stoic analysis of what the Pope has to say about the ethics of Artificial Intelligence