The Art of Living: The Stoics on the Nature and Function of Philosophy (BCPaperbacks)

The book clearly and concisely answered several questions I had about Stoicism. I’m new to the philosophy, but have read several books (including source material) on it already. Very helpful—and not too technical. Explained well—once you get past the occasional Greek wording.

John Sellars' The art of Living is mostly about Stoicism, and even within the increasingly crowded offerings devoted to that particular philosophy of life it stands out as a very valuable contribution. But its broader appeal is that it really does an excellent job at explaining and exploring the whole concept of philosophy as "the art of living," something that we can all benefit from, regardless of our chosen philosophy or religion (and that includes my professional philosophy colleagues). While the book is written in a somewhat academic style (lots of Greek words!), it is very accessible to a general public without a strong background in philosophy.

These two sayings are attributed to Socrates: "Virtue is Knowledge" and "To Know the good is to do the good". Dr. Sellars view of knowledge as "techne" gives these sayings a Stoic interpretation.

Excellent price.

This book is a great read for anyone who wants to put theoretical wisdom into practice. The author describes quite vividly how ancient men of wisdom were able to accomplish this challenging task. The book is well structured. The topic is developed very logically. The author shows that theory and practice are not two opposed extremes. On the contrary: they are two complemantary stages of our way to mastery of any art. I especially liked the concepts of habituation and digestion as useful principles for translating any theory into our daily actions.

Modern philosophy has become it seems a totally abstract pursuit, and any impact on one's daily life if incidental. It was never like that in the beginning of course, and in this book John Sellars considers ancient philosophy as an "art of living", seen mostly through a Stoic lens as this school was foremost in pursuing a practical philosophy.Beginning with a general consideration of how philosophers of antiquity embodied their ideals into even the minutiae of daily life, and how reading a philosopher's biography was considered a requisite primary step before study of his philosophy itself, Sellars then leads on to the Socratic origins of an "art of living" and the subsequent Stoic conception of this. Sellars then allows objections to this Stoic ideal through the Sceptic voice of Sextus Empiricus.The second half of the book turns to the actual practice of philosophy with a general chapter on 'askesis' followed by two specifically concerning Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. Whatever one's view of Stoicism in particular and ancient philosophy in general, Sellars argues for its value today as an inspiration for querying the purpose of philosophy.While the book is quite academic in style it is nevertheless quite accessible if a little verbose perhaps (and Sellars' tendency to keep repeating Greek words in parentheses constantly as though we had forgotten already from the previous sentence grates a little). There are copious footnotes, a glossary of Greek philosophical terms, a list of important and relevant ancient philosophers, a large bibliography, and large 'index locorum' of quoted works. A well researched and presented contribution to the philosophical literature.

Explains how philosophy is not only a theoretical world view but can help to live a good life. I found it very enlightening and easy to understand. Would have liked the Greek words in a bigger print.