Spot on. I strongly recommend Russell's History of Western Philosophy to get a wider perspective and understanding of how and why thought systems evolved, much

Spot on. I strongly recommend Russell's History of Western Philosophy to get a wider perspective and understanding of how and why thought systems evolved, much more insightful than knowing any particular philosophy in a vacuum, and to understand stoicisms place and how it primed the West for Christianity. It is often claimed that the ancient greeks experimented with every possible philosophical system, of which stoicism is one of many. To me this ultimate freedom of thought, this willingness to challenge and explore ideas without fear of tradition and authority, and to create new ones and following them wherever they may lead, this open mindedness is one of their great contributions. Of all these, Epicureism is possibly the one that has ultimately triumphed, via Lucrecius' De Rerum Natura. This point of view is wonderfully explained in The Swerve: How the World Became Modern. Absolutely fascinating how by starting by speculating that everyting that exists has an exclusively material substance and is made of atoms (he wasn't the first to speculate this though), Epicureus, via a long chain of reasoning, deducted an ethic that is essentially modern (albeit often misunderstood due to its suppression and distorsion by the christian tradition). 2300 years ago. I wonder if A Man in Full novel by Tom Wolfe is a precursor of this stoicism trend.