"Beyond Stoicism" - Book Review

An introductory survey of how to practice many of the ancient Greek philosophies.

Beyond Stoicism is an introduction to practicing the ancient Greek philosophies of life - Stoicism included. There are plenty of books that give introductions to these philosophies, but this one is unique in that it focuses on helping the reader make practical applications of those philosophies. Each philosophy in Beyond Stoicism is accompanied by exercises for trying out what it is like to live by that philosophy.

There are cases in which publishers exert their right to choose a title. Beyond Stoicism appears to be such a case. In the UK the book is titled Live Like a Philosopher: What the Ancient Greeks and Romans Can Teach Us About Living a Happy Life. While less catchy, the UK title more clearly describes the book. The book isn’t really about something that’s “beyond” Stoicism. The title appears to be chosen just to be a call-out to the many current readers on all things Stoicism.

In the introduction, the authors say,

… many of the ancients believed that a single philosophy was the “correct” one and that the best thought system should prove valid for every human in every situation. But we don’t think there is sufficient evidence to believe that a single philosophy of life is a natural fit for everyone. Rather, we believe that different philosophies are suitable for different people based on their individual personalities and backgrounds. It’s even possible that combining aspects of various philosophies could be the best approach for you.

It makes sense that people with different personalities and life experiences will find themselves attracted to some philosophical ideas and repelled by others, and find some philosophies useful for some situations and not for others. For example, one of the famous modern popularizers of Stoicism, James Stockdale, said that when his plane was shot down in the Vietnam War and that he was soon going to become a prisoner of war that he was entering the world of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus. What philosophy of life may work best may vary by situation. Stockdale was aware that his situation had suddenly changed.

Beyond Stoicism is audacious in its scope. It covers not just the few philosophies that are getting substantive attention from modern practitioners but also philosophies that are seldom discussed, such as Megarianism, Cyrenaicism, and Protagorean philosophy. Every philosophy is shown to have something valuable to impart. Anyone interested in living philosophically will find many practical ideas of interest.

Because of its audacious scope, the book encounters two inescapable problems for which no fully satisfactory solution is available. The first is that distilling a philosophy into a single chapter can painfully leave a lot out much of a philosophy’s richness. Stoicism, which is largely reduced to the dichotomy of control, may be the philosophy that suffers the most from this.

The other inescapable problem is that there is no good order in which to describe the philosophies. This is particularly problematic because it’s useful to compare certain philosophies with other philosophies, but that requires familiarity with a philosophy presented later in the book. It’s a chicken-and-egg problem. For example, before they are introduced to the reader, Pyrrhonism is discussed in the Cyrenaic chapter (p 24) and Academic Skepticism is discussed in the Platonism chapter (p 188).

As the authors were compelled to choose an order, they chose one that reflects their overall thinking about these philosophies of life. The book organizes the philosophies on three themes - feeling good, being good, and thinking well, or what the authors call pleasure, character, and doubt. There’s also a fourth section called “here be dragons” for philosophies that don’t fit the schema. But in a sense none of the philosophies fit the schema because the three aspects all interpenetrate. As Epicurus puts it,

It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and honorably and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and honorably and justly without living pleasantly. Whenever any one of these is lacking, when, for instance, the man is not able to live wisely, though he lives honorably and justly, it is impossible for him to live a pleasant life.

The authors chose to discuss Cyrenaicism first. As many people inspect the first chapter of a book before making a decision to buy it, I fear this decision may result in the unfortunate loss of many who would be happy with the book if it had started with stronger material.

The authors base this choice of putting Cyrenaicism first on the belief that it best reflects most people’s default philosophy. As Piggliucci and Lopez both teach college students in New York City, this may reflect those social environments. I live in rural New Hampshire. My neighbors do not strike me as natural Cyrenaics. Instead, they seem to me to be naive Aristotelians, pursuing a mix of virtue and pleasure.

One problem in starting with Cyrenaicism is that it never had many adherents, and perhaps no modern adherents. It died out within about just 200 years of its founding. While its ethics are easy to understand, its epistemology isn’t, forcing the authors to discuss comparisons with other philosophies that have yet to be introduced.

It seems to me that it would be easier on the reader if the book started with philosophies that people are likely to have some familiarity with, and that have some degree of current popularity, such as Stoicism or Aristotelianism. All of the authors are known for promoting Stoicism. The chapters on Stoicism and similar philosophies are the best in the book. Their explanation of how to practice Epictetus’ dichotomy of control is particularly good.

On the other hand, there’s one big advantage in discussing Cyrenaicism first because it allows the authors to bring up the fact that the Cyrenaics invented the spiritual exercise known as the premeditation of evils. This exercise was later adopted by the Stoics, whose philosophical views were almost completely opposite to that of the Cyrenaics. This is important for the reader to know, because even if the reader decides to pick one of these philosophies as their life philosophy, this example demonstrates that there are things the reader can find useful in the other philosophies. Pointing this out is one of the great virtues of Beyond Stoicism.

For example, Stoics have choices to make about pleasure, but Stoicism doesn’t give much guidance for those decisions. It gives guidance for decisions involving virtue. In making decisions about pleasure, Stoics may find helpful the Epicurean approach of categorizing pleasure as natural/unnatural and necessary/unnecessary.

Unfortunately, the book contains a handful of jarring errors, all of which strangely somehow connect to Democritus. Perhaps the biggest one is that Democritean philosophy was not included in the book. While we don’t know much about Democritean philosophy, we know as much about it as we do about Megerarian, Pythagorean, and Protagorean philosophy, all of which were included in the book. We also know that Democritean philosophy was at one point so influential that it inspired the creation of two other philosophies, Epicureanism and Pyrrhonism, much like how Stoicism and Aristotelianism were inspired by Socrates. Democritus still has something to teach us. By coincidence, my 2025 New Year’s resolution was about following one of Democritus’ ethical prescriptions: that one should strive to be cheerful.

(I’m also surprised that Heraclitus was not included. I know that Massimo Piglucci is a big enough fan of Heraclitus that he has a hat custom inscribed with “panta rhea.” In the Meditations, Marcus Aurelius refers to Heraclitus more than he does any other philosopher.)

On page 159, we are told an anecdote about Democritus meeting Protagoras. Just six pages later, we are instead told that they were not contemporaries. On page 40, we learn that Epicurus was a generation after Democritus. They were born 70 years apart.

Epicureans will rightly be annoyed at the claim (p 89) that to practice Epicureanism requires an onerous commitment to joining a commune. There are lots of modern Epicureans. They have no commune, and they can tell you that a commune isn’t needed to practice Epicureanism. Even in antiquity, most Epicureans did not live in Epicurean gardens. Even famous and important ancient Epicureans such as Philodemus lived in private homes. Philodemus’ home is now a tourist attraction at Herculaneum.

Pyrrhonists will rightly be annoyed by the claim (p 212) that one of the four Pyrrhonist criteria of action is “heeding expert advice whenever available.” Nope. The criterion being referred to here is instruction in techne (know-how, craft). Not only is it not about heeding expert advice, one of the ancient Pyrrhonist books that has come down to us, Against the Professors, is about reasons to reject expert advice.

While these issues are a detraction, there are millions of readers who have dipped their toes in ancient Greek philosophy - mostly Stoicism - as a modern philosophical practice. There’s so much more than that. Beyond Stoicism gives these readers an accessible introduction to many of the other philosophies, all in a way that readers can put to immediate use. I hope the book sells well enough to warrant a second edition - preferably under the book’s more virtuous UK title - where some of the oversights mentioned here are addressed.