Modern Stoicism Ltd. now has set up a Patreon page – for anyone who would like to make a regular monthly contribution to assist the organization in its many ongoing activities, here is the link to that page.
As many of Stoicism Today’s readers may know, last year the Modern Stoicism team incorporated officially as a not-for-profit organization (you can read about that here). Every member of the Modern Stoicism team is a volunteer, so it is largely donations and contributions that allow us to carry out the work and projects helping people get introduced to, and then deepen their understanding and practice of, Stoicism in the contemporary world.
For a number of years, supporters of Modern Stoicism were able to make contributions via the Paypal link. Now with Patreon, it becomes possible to make a regular monthly contribution, and also to receive some perks as a donor as well. We will be continuing to build out the Modern Stoicism Patreon page more fully over the next week or so – so keep an eye out for that!
As mentioned, Modern Stoicism is involved in a number of projects. This blog you are currently reading – Stoicism Today (containing over 500 articles on Stoicism) – is one of them, as is this larger Modern Stoicism website itself. If you are considering becoming a Patreon supporter you might well wonder what else we do. Here are our main activities:
- We host an annual Stoic Week online course, in which 7,000 people participated last year.
- We also carry out a longer and more intensive Stoic Mindfulness and Resilience Training (SMRT) research project, testing the effectiveness of training in core Stoic psychological strategies, in which thousands of people have participated around the world.
- There is also a Stoic Attitudes and Behaviours Scale (SABS) research project, which gathers and analyzes data on Stoic questionnaires in order to make comparisons with established psychological measures.
- We hold an annual Stoicon conference on Stoicism in modern life. In recent years, it has been hosted in Toronto, New York City, and London, and it offers an opportunity for people engaged in Stoicism as a way of life to hear from leading academics in the field.
- Videos, transcripts, and summaries from talks and workshops at Stoicon are compiled and made public in our course site and in Stoicism Today.
- We also help to promote the annual Stoicon-x mini-conferences, which take place around the world each year, giving newer speakers an opportunity to discuss Stoicism with a wider audience.
- Publishing the series of Stoicism Today books containing articles from our contributors as well as detailed online reports explaining our research findings is another main service we provide to the worldwide Stoic community
Our team of nine active members on the steering committee includes psychotherapists, philosophers, researchers, authors, course developers, and content producers (many of the team members wearing more than one hat!) – and they work together to further the goals of the Modern Stoicism organization, which are:
- to disseminate knowledge and encourage discussion about Stoic philosophy and practices and their applications to modern living
- to reach as many people from around the world as possible with our work and provide opportunities for them to explore Stoicism, whatever their orientation or interpretation with respect to Stoicism
- to provide accurate and reliable information about Stoic philosophy and practices, and in doing so to maintain continuity with classic forms and sources
- to focus on the application of Stoicism to everyday problems of living in the modern world
- to conduct philosophical inquiry into, and empirical research on, Stoic philosophy and its applications to modern living, in order to advance our knowledge of its benefits
- to represent a broad spectrum of views on the subject by including people who approach Stoicism from different theoretical perspectives, personal backgrounds, and religious, political, or cultural commitments;
These points encapsulate what Modern Stoicism as an organization is all about – and will continue to focus on going forward. If you view these goals and projects as valuable – or if you benefit from the activities of the Modern Stoicism organization, consider becoming a supporter on Patreon!
