A Handbook for New Stoics

Come join the Philly Stoa as we continue our journey through A Handbook for New Stoics, focusing this session on Weeks 16, 24, and 29. These weeks fall under the Stoic discipline of action, the practice of engaging with the world around us with intention, reserve, and a commitment to the common good. Together, they invite us into some of the most demanding and rewarding Stoic exercises: confronting mortality honestly, preparing ourselves for the friction of daily life with others, and holding ourselves accountable through honest self-reflection at the end of each day.

Week 16 takes Seneca's advice to heart by asking us to sit with the reality of death, not as a morbid exercise, but as a clarifying one. Through daily free-form writing on death from a Stoic perspective, we practice what the Stoics called memento mori, the active remembrance that our time is finite. Far from being grim, this exercise is meant to sharpen our attention to what matters and loosen our grip on what does not. Week 24 shifts focus outward to the people we encounter, drawing on Marcus Aurelius's counsel to anticipate difficult, frustrating, or unkind people before we meet them. By premeditating on these encounters, we arrive at them with patience already prepared rather than caught off guard by irritation. Week 29 brings us full circle with the ancient practice of the nightly review, asking us to close each day by examining our actions honestly, where we acted with virtue, where we fell short, and what we might carry forward with greater intention.

You are welcome to join whether or not you have read the material in advance. This series is part of the ongoing partnership between the Philly Stoa and the Philadelphia Ethical Society, and our aim is to create a supportive space for practicing philosophy as a lived discipline through thoughtful discussion and shared reflection.