School for a New Stoicism

[Number of registered proficientes: 655]

Welcome to the School for a New Stoicism! The School is an informal institution, headed by Prof. Massimo Pigliucci of the City College of New York, that aims at developing and disseminating new forms of Stoicism for the modern era.

The inspiration for the School, informally referred to as Stoa Nova, is a landmark book by Larry Becker, aptly entitled A New Stoicism (here is an accessible commentary), which asks the question: what would Stoicism look like today if it had had an uninterrupted history from its foundation in the 4th century BCE? Larry provided us with the first draft of an answer, and the goal of the School is to follow his example and keep pursuing new paths of Stoic wisdom.

Of course, those new paths are built on the old ones, as the School does not reject the teachings of the ancient Stoics, from the founder, Zeno of Citium, to Chrysippus of Soli; from Musonius Rufus to Epictetus; from Seneca to Marcus Aurelius, to name but a few.

The basic idea of Stoicism is that we should live according to Nature, meaning by taking seriously the fundamental aspects that define human nature: our need to live socially and our ability to reason.

The Stoics thought that in order to live a life worth living we ought to educate ourselves in three major areas of inquiry: ethics (how to live well), science (understanding how the world works), and logic (how to think well). These three are, therefore, the major concerns of the School.

This site provides an all encompassing portal for the activities of the School, which include online courses, in-person workshops, a newsletter, a podcast, a series of videos, e-books, and a number of other initiatives and publications.

Our events are listed at the Global Stoa meetup, please check it out!

And if you’d like to stay in touch and receive updates about the School for a New Stoicism, please provide your email address in the field below.

Philosophia longa, vita brevis!