 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In Our Time
|
 |
|
 |
MISSED A PROGRAMME?
Go to the Listen Again page |
|
|
|
|
|
|
PROGRAMME INFO |
|
|
|
|
|
The big ideas which form the intellectual agenda of our age are illuminated by some of the best minds. Melvyn Bragg and three guests investigate the history of ideas and debate their application in modern life. |
|
|
|
|
LISTEN AGAIN |
|
|
|
|
PRESENTER |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
BIOGRAPHY
|
|
|
|
| "I'm fascinated by the fact that we live in a time when so many people are doing fantastic work, and thinking in areas which it's not remotely possible for me to keep up with & and these people are prepared to talk about it. They're prepared to come on In Our Time and other programmes on Radio 4 and try and talk to the rest of us ..." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
PROGRAMME DETAILS |
|
|
|
 |
|
STOICISM
Find out more about this subject by using our special research page
The philosophy of Stoicism was founded by Zeno in the fourth century BC and flourished in Greece and then in Rome. Its ideals of inner solitude, forbearance in adversity and the acceptance of fate won many brilliant adherents and made it the dominant philosophy across the whole of the Ancient World. The ex-slave Epictetus said "Man is troubled not by events, but by the meaning he gives them". Seneca, the politician, declared that "Life without the courage for death is slavery". The stoic thoughts of Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher emperor, provided a rallying point for empire builders into the modern age.
But what was stoicism? How did its ideas of inner retreat come to influence the most powerful and public men of the classical era? And does it still have a legacy for us today?
Contributors
Angie Hobbs, Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Warwick
Jonathan Rée, philosopher and historian
David Sedley, Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Cambridge
|
|
|
RELATED LINKS
|
|
 |
|
|
|
| | | | |
|
