Holiday: Stoics engage in public life by default unlike Epicureans
Ryan Holiday · Ryan Holiday: How Stoicism Changed the World · Joe Lonsdale · Feb 2, 2023 · at 11:53
Author Ryan Holiday explains the contrasting approaches of Stoicism and Epicureanism regarding civic duty.
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“The distinction in the ancient world, the two rival schools are Epicureanism and Stoicism. And Seneca, one of the great Stoics, is saying, like, an Epicurean will get involved in public life if they have to. And he says, a Stoic gets involved in public life unless something prevents them. And so I like the idea of, I mean, the Stoics were emperors and soldiers and you know, entrepreneurs and Public intellectuals. They were, they did not retreat into the garden or the monastery.”
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