Emily Austin on Stoicism's Rival (Episode 34‪)‬ Stoa Conversations: Stoicism Applied

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In this episode, I speak with Emily Austin. Emily is the professor of philosophy at Wake Forest University and she's also the author of Living for Pleasure [https://amzn.to/3KREo6B], which is an introduction to the ancient philosophy of Epicureanism, and that's what we'll be focusing on today.

Ancient Stoics, like Seneca, found a lot of wisdom in Stoicism's philosophical rival, we can do the same today. We talk about Stoicism's ancient rival, whether it makes sense as a philosophy today, and what the Epicurean life would look like.

(01:30) What is Epicureanism?

(08:11) Misinterpreting Epicureanism

(12:09) Epicureanism vs Utilitarianism

(15:52) What makes Epicureans different

(29:09) Does Epicureanism defeat itself?

(35:03) Living the Epicurean life

(40:21) Why aren't we happy all the time

(42:27) Learning how to die

(49:40) Takeaways

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Thanks to Michael Levy for graciously letting us use his music in the conversations: https://ancientlyre.com/