From tomorrow, we’ll be releasing an excerpt every three or four days, from a book called ‘Street Stoicism’ by Marcin Fabjanski. At the moment, the book is only published in Polish (‘Stoicyzm Uliczny‘), but Marcin has kindly provided some translated excerpts from his work for readers of Stoicism Today.
Marcin’s book takes 41 common situations, from seeing the dentist to having a quarrel, to having a computer which won’t work to having too many things to do at once, and applies Stoic philosophy to each scenario. Each example starts with imagining the problem situation, before then presenting a Stoic maxim which relates to that situation, and then reflects on the implications of that maxim for action.
Marcin has given a TEDx talk in Warsaw, ‘Do Not Fall in Love with a Sparrow Flying By’, which takes its inspiration from a passage in Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pFZql2LYMg]
A little bit more about Marcin….
Dr. Marcin Fabjański has worked as an academic lecturer and researcher, as well as as a journalist and director of documentary films. He is also author of five books, several of which were for children, including Wędrówki filozoficzne [Travels in Philosophy] (2003), a book which combines fiction and facts in order to introduce the history of philosophy to children. The book is the basis for a programme used in several primary and secondary schools in Poland for introducing philosophy to children.
Marcin is a graduate of the University of York, UK and the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. He received Ph.D. in Philosophy (1998), on the basis of dissertation Criticism of the Metaphysical Constituent of Mind in Buddhism and in Schopenhauer’s Thought.
Marcin also runs the website http://selfoff.com, which includes an English version, and which focusses on his work in ‘Mind-Body Bridging’.
For a full biography, click here.
