In this talk at Kings’ College London, Jules Evans discusses how Stoicism has experienced a revival in CBT and positive psychology. He also discusses concerns about the ‘politics of wellbeing’, and the need to encourage discussion, rather than dogmatism, about what it is that constitutes a ‘good’ life. The revival of Stoic philosophy has the strength of offering ‘space for ethical discussion’. In addition, he discusses the perennial Stoic difficulty of establishing supportive communities, before concluding that Stoicism’ greatest strength is the idea of serving something really worthwhile in life, such as the good or morality, and how the philosophy is especially useful in schools, prisons, adult education.
In the Q&A which followed the talk, the discussion turns to how Stoicism can work as a philosophy if one does not believe in a providential world view.
