Overview
Research for Self-Care
...we do possess two lists of spiritual exercises. They do not completely overlap, but they do have the merit of giving us a fairly complete panorama of Stoico-Platonic inspired philosophical therapeutics. One of these lists enumerates the following elements: research (zetesis), thorough investigation (skepsis), reading (anagnosis), listening (akroasis), attention (prosoche), self-mastery (enkrateia), and indifference to indifferent things. The other names successively: reading, meditations (meleta), therapies of the passions, remembrance of good things, self-mastery (enkrateia), and the accomplishment of duties. With the help of these lists, we shall be able to give a brief description of Stoic spiritual exercises (Hadot, Philosophy as a Way of Life, p. 84).
This exercise will ask that you do some research, reading, and writing with one philosopher from our work together.
Choose one philosopher we have studied and read beyond what has been offered in our PDFs. You can purchase such works as The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday, or any of Holiday’s other books, or feel free to purchase a book by Alain de Botton or The School of Life. If you would like more suggestions, please feel free to reach out! Many of the ancient texts are available with a simple Google search. Such titles include but are not limited to, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (Gregory Hays translation), The Art of Living by Epictetus, and Enchiridion by Epictetus. I will provide options in the "Files" section on Canvas as well.
In the essay, choose 1-3 topics that the philosopher focuses on. Spend time reading the text and find examples of how the philosopher discusses the topic(s). Using the reading questions from the syllabus as guides, write how the philosopher understands that topic.
Some examples might include an essay discussing Marcus Aurelius’ ideas on the importance of focusing on what you can control, his thoughts on serving the human community, or his writing about the nature of time. Find where in Meditations he discusses these things and establishes how his ideas might help develop your philosophy as the art of living.
This exercise aims to deepen your understanding of a philosopher’s work that has connected with you this semester on topics of your interest.
Here is a link to a potential book that is referenced heavily in our Bibliotherapy by Epictetus:
The Art of Living: http://michaelpetralia.com/the%20art%20of%20living_epictetus.html
If you do not purchase the book, please cite this version in the following way: (Epictetus, "Name of the Section," 1995).