Z a c h a r y G A u g u s t i n e a no p e n - s o u r c es e l f - h e l pb o o k P h i l o s o p h yf o r A n yL i f e Philosophy for Any Life Philosophy for Any Life an open-source self-help book By Zachary G. Augustine v1.0 29 September 2015 This work is freely available at www.philosophyforanylife.com This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 In- ternational License. You are free to copy and redistribute it in any manner, so long as you attribute the author. You are free to remix or otherwise build upon this work, so long as you attribute the original author, note your changes, and distribute your con- tributions under the same license as the original. The license of this work does not apply to the works cited within or passages quoted which remain the property of their original authors. I have made every effort to use these works in a fair manner. Section 107 of the US Copyright Act which allows the use of copyrighted works for scholarly, educational, or critical purposes. Cover photograph by Sébastien Marchand, licensed under a Creative Commons Zero license and distributed through Unsplash. The photograph has been color-cor- rected and cropped for the cover designed by Zachary G. Augustine. Author photograph by Timi Koyejo. The body text is set in EB Garamond , an open-source font based on scans of the original Garamond letterforms. The display text is set in TeX Gyre Heroes , a freely-licensed font based on Helvet- ica. First edition published 29 September 2015. This is v1.0. Contents Introduction: Philosophy and You i Part I: Life Power 1 Fundamentals 5 Three Stoic Disciplines 13 Chicken 25 Simple Rules 34 Patterns in Nature 37 Virtue in the Storm 45 Macedonia 47 Parts of the Whole 65 Flex 69 Dis-ease (Mental Health) 74 Exhale 88 Part II: Liberty Bottom of the Barrel 98 Free Your Mind 104 Simplicity ’ s Deception 114 Gilded Pleasures 120 How to Read 131 Bighorn Basin 135 Trees from Ash 145 The Social Animal 148 Leather 152 Flux 156 Frozen Feet 166 K(no)w Limits 171 Part III: and the Pursuit Choice 179 Please Shut Up 182 Effort 183 Do It 188 Incendiary 189 Habit 192 Resolve 195 Tough and Competent 198 Digestion 201 Premolars 206 No Small Difference 211 The View from Above 219 Colossal 223 The Hero Appears 228 The Last Good Emperor 236 Light a Fire 247 To Be ... 251 Conclusion: Choose 254 Appendices 257 Notes 271 References 288 Acknowledgments 302 To my sister, the strongest person I know You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations i Introduction: Philosophy and You This book is a collection of strategies to help you deal with whatever life throws at you. I wrote this book because I wish someone wrote it for me. I came to philosophy through my experiences with mental illness. When I left my rural hometown for the first time, I found myself alone at the Uni- versity of Chicago. I began to feel overwhelmed and anxious at the prospect being both fully responsible and yet unable to entirely control my own life. This internal uncertainty manifest itself in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, of which frequent intrusive thoughts were a symptom. I felt like I was losing control of my mind, and feeling only compounded my worries. My work began to suffer and the longer I stayed in such an intense academic environ- ment, the more I suffered personally. I considered transferring back to my hometown where I could pass away my life in safe, uneventful ignorance, but effectively forfeiting my chances of going to graduate school and working to become a professor. B ecause I wouldn’t ever experience the life I was leav- ing behind in Chicago, I had no way of knowing what I know now – how much I would have missed out on. Remarkably, I then came across a book that inspired me to take action, calm my mind, and reverse my decay: the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, the last good Emperor of Rome. What was anxious became invigorating. What was overwhelming became inspiring. I began to feel the full weight of the life I would fail to live if I quit school. An old book calmed my mind and transformed my life. The same spirit reverberate throughout the book you now hold. I offer relief to anyone who may be struggling. But this book isn’t about me or Marcus Aurelius or even philosophy, not really. You won’t need to know who any philosophers are or ii Philosophy for Any Life what they said. Instead, I will show you philosophy in action – in stories and essays and dialogues – so that you can understand it intuitively and use it yourself. The exercises that follow are mental, but they are entirely practical in focus. Phi- losophy was created to be used, to help you think differently, and to inspire change in your way of life. This book rekindles the spirit of the Stoic philosophical tradition, now over two thousand years old. Ever since, Stoics have inspired readers to take positive action through an inspirational and sincere writing style. And in each generation since, new students offered up some of their own examples and metaphors to be passed down to the next. Stoicism is unique among phi- losophies in this way: it encourages the remixing of the original ideas. A Stoic student doesn’t merely ‘ inherit ’ their teachers’ ideas, they make them their own, developing creative techniques to express the same Stoic tenants in a new way. The original ideas are only amplified with each new reverber- ation. Stoicism is the same basic truths expressed through a hundred differ- ent people in a thousand different ways – and to the benefit of all. In the spirit of this tradition, I am giving this book away. You are free to copy, share, redistribute, print, teach, remix, edit, transform, or otherwise build open this material, so long as you properly attribute what you use, and release any derivative works under the same license. You can read more about the open-content movement and download this book for free online at www.philosophyforanylife.com. If you find my book helpful, I encourage you to share it any way you wish. If you enjoyed the book or are still strug- gling, don’t hesitate to write me. I have written this book with three ends in mind: 1) To offer relief from the problems you face in life, both spiritually and Introduction: To the Reader iii practically. 2) To distill the useful parts of ancient philosophy and infuse them in a more intuitive form to be enjoyed by the modern reader. 3) To rediscover a sense of wonder in familiar things. Part I focuses on the essentials of life: the basic techniques for withholding judgement, discerning what is inside of your control and not, as well as ac- ceptance, dealing with stress and mental illness, and mindfulness practices. Part II deals with learning how question yourself and your desires, your role both in nature and in society and how you can avoid being led astray in ei- ther. Part III is concerned with action, habit, purpose, and human nature – a mental kick in the pants to help you realize your own potential life yet unlived. Philosophy has always been about action, and this book is no exception. It is about the value of your own life, and you can put philosophy to work to improve your own. Philosophy can help anyone who wants it to, and noth- ing would make me happier than for you to choose to live a full, happy, and flourishing life. Your friend in life and in living well, Zachary G. Augustine zga@uchicago.edu