An Index of my Medium Articles — I’ve indexed my posts by topic below so you can dive into my writing without endlessly scrolling on my profile page. You can also read my most substantial posts on The Sophist, my Medium publication. The study of philosophy, culture and history can help you live a better life. …

Stoicism for Modern Lives — “Observe the movement of the stars as if you were running their courses with them, and let your mind constantly dwell on the changes of the elements into each other. Such imaginings wash away the filth of life on the ground.” Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.47. Stoic philosophy is beautiful. It’s…

Time as the Juncture of Change and Eternity — Consider the old-fashioned wall clock. We often don’t think of the clock itself when we glance in its direction. We’re too busy, which is why we only glanced in the first place. We’re measuring our intuitive sense of time against its turning hands. The clock’s reliability makes it only dimly…

The Art of the Adequate Representation — “What in all this prevents the mind from preserving itself in tranquillity, in true judgement of circumstance and readiness to use any event submitted to it? So that Judgement says to Circumstance: ‘This is what you really are, however different you may conventionally appear.’” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.68 Bare…

Seeing your world as it really is — “Don’t you know how small a part you are by comparison to the whole? With regard to your body, I mean; for when it comes to your reason, you’re not inferior to the gods nor do you fall short of them, because the greatness of reason is measured not by…

Everything You Need is Within Your Reach — “Consider who you are. First of all, a human being, that is to say, one who has no faculty more authoritative than choice, but subordinates everything else to that, keeping choice itself free from enslavement and subjection.” Epictetus (Discourses 2.10.1) It is within the self that we are in the…

Understanding The Limits of Your Freedom — “Nothing pertains to human beings except what defines us as human.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.15. Autonomy is largely assumed in the West’s individualistic culture. …

The Foundation For A New Stoicism — “When someone consulted Epictetus about how he could persuade his brother to stop being ill-disposed towards him, he said: Philosophy doesn’t promise to secure any external good for man, since it would then be embarking on something that lies outside its proper subject matter. …

How Georges de La Tour’s allegorical vision resonates with our deepest intuitions — In the 1650s Louis XIII of France received a painting from a provincial artist hailing from Lorraine, at the eastern edge of the country. …