Deliberate Conduct
Stoic thinking for modern life, with common sense.
Deliberate Conduct takes its cue from the Stoics without treating them as scripture. Most of today's questions are the same ones they answered: what is in our hands, how to respond instead of react, how to act well when nothing cooperates. The answers here are tested against modern life, plain reasoning and common sense. No guru tone, no quotes as decoration, no promise that philosophy will fix your week.
The short version
Three habits hold the whole philosophy up
- Want only what is up to you.Your judgments, choices and effort are yours. Results, other people and luck are not. The dichotomy of control
- Examine before you assent.An event arrives with a story attached. Check the story before you act on it. Between stimulus and response
- Act by principle, not impulse.Decide what kind of person you are trying to be, then do the next thing that person would do. Principle over impulse
Part one
What Stoicism Is
A philosophy about what depends on us, how we judge what happens and how we act. Not a technique for feeling nothing.
01
The Dichotomy of Control
The first line of the Enchiridion, and the idea that holds up the rest of Stoicism. What it says, what it does not say, and how to use it.
02
Between Stimulus and Response
A famous line with an uncertain author, and an idea with a very certain one: the Stoic discipline of assent.
03
Principle Over Impulse
The third discipline: turning judgment into conduct. Not willpower against desire, but action that follows from what you value.
04
The Four Virtues
Four names for one excellence of character, and the only thing the Stoics thought was truly good.
Part two
Practical Stoicism
What the Stoics actually asked people to do, and what survives when you test it against an ordinary week.
01
Stoic Practices
The Stoics called them exercises, askesis. A handful of habits, each with a purpose, each easy to misuse.
02
Stoicism Day to Day
The four places where control is always partial, and where Stoicism earns its keep: work, money, love and children.
03
Deciding and Holding a Decision
Most advice is about making decisions. The harder part is keeping them when the noise starts.
04
Happiness Without Hedonism
Happiness as a good life rather than a good mood. An old distinction that has become very practical.
05
Stoic Without Knowing It
Many of the most useful modern books on living well repeat Stoic ideas without naming them. Reading them side by side shows what is new and what is not.
06
Stoic Quotes, Explained
A quote without context is a slogan. These are the Stoics' best known lines, put back where they came from.