Nancy Sherman’s Stoic Wisdom is a timely and well-written book, one that aims to provide an overview of Stoicism geared toward an audience that is living through the sort of times Stoicism would seem to fit well: a pandemic, unrest over racism, climate change, and the events of January 6. We could do with a bit of Stoic ataraxia, and Sherman, writing “in the position of a curious and inquisitive neo-Stoic” (p. 213), offers her audience practical lessons in Stoic ethics.

Following an introduction that describes the contemporary revival of interest in Stoicism, “the new Zen of the West” (p. 3), Sherman—in “Lesson 2: Who were the Stoics?”—introduces a cast of pre-Stoic, Stoic, and neo-Stoic characters who will populate her narrative: Socrates, Diogenes, Zeno, Cleanthes, Cicero, Seneca, Musonius Rufus (an interesting addition), Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Erasmus, Montaigne, Descartes, and Kant (others such as Hume and Smith feature in later discussions as well). Lessons 3 through 8 introduce the reader to the practical side of Stoicism, an effort fruitfully aided by Sherman’s engagement with psychoanalysis, modern psychology, and non-Stoic thinkers such as Aristotle. Lessons 3 and 4 describe the Stoic account of the emotions and how one might successfully manage them: Lesson 3 focuses on Stoic tactics like rehearsing emotional responses, whereas Lesson 4 concentrates on the cognitive and voluntary dimensions of emotions, along with the nonretributivist possibilities of anger. Lesson 5 portrays a Stoic worldview deeply appreciative of the socially embedded nature of human beings. Lesson 6 addresses the place of Stoicism in military ethics and life, providing an exemplary account of James Stockdale, for whom Epictetus was a key resource during his torture and imprisonment in Vietnam. Lesson 7 explores the possibilities of Stoicism as a “lifehack” (p. 154). Lesson 8 juxtaposes Stoic meditative practices with those developed in South and East Asia, highlighting the importance of exemplary persons in the Stoic tradition and of Stoic practices of self-examination. Whereas Asian practices of meditation tend to aim at silencing the inner voice, Stoicism aims at harnessing the inner voice for rational self-examination. Finally, Lesson 9 grapples with the contradictions of Stoicism: Seneca’s famously prudential case for being merciful to slaves (“those who are enslaved can turn on those who enslave them; better to have them be grateful than afraid”; p. 211); the Stoic embrace of the “equality of spirit” alongside deep social, economic, and political inequality (p. 212); and the willingness to use (in a vein quite distinct from the neo-Stoic Kant) other humans, especially slaves, as means to our particular ends.

Sherman seeks to articulate “the full promise of Stoicism and its Socratic inheritance” (p. 216) while recognizing that Stoicism, like all historical schools of thought, brings with it many features uncomfortable for the liberal democratic mind and that it “can’t help us with all of” the very real problems we currently face (p. 219). What we wind up with, in the end, is the ideal of “a healthy modern Stoic”: “Stoic discipline and resilience, virtue and the bonds of reason and rationality can help unite us to face our individual and shared challenges. But only when empathy and mercy course through the veins of reason” (p. 220).

There is a great deal to admire in this book. Although written for a popular audience, it is not written in the style of a popularizer; indeed, Sherman often critiques the overly dramatic popularizing elements of Stoics such as Epictetus. Sherman engages scholarly debates (e.g., the recent reevaluation of Seneca’s Letter 47 in light of its context) and provides clear and crisp accounts of difficult philosophical concepts, such as hormai, or impulses, especially in Lessons 3 and 4. Sherman’s extensive background in military ethics and related philosophical issues, along with her knowledge of psychoanalysis, enriches the text, as does her engagement with contemporary politics (e.g., former “President Trump’s vindictive payback in response to narcissistic injuries,” the very antithesis of Stoic virtue on p. 85) and the COVID-19 pandemic. Insofar as the book aims to present a clear and concise introduction to and account of the practical side of Stoic ethics for a non-expert audience, it more than succeeds.

The few criticisms that I have stem less from the book qua “field manual for the art of living well” (as the book’s cover puts it) and more from a scholarly perspective, given the venue and audience of this review. First, although Sherman occasionally addresses Stoic physics and ontology (e.g., the discussion of “the logos of the universe” on p. 25), these matters very much take a back seat to Stoic ethics. As a scholar interested in classical thought, I found myself asking how much Stoicism we can have without its views about divine rationality, say, or the complicated Stoic understanding of causality and agency. We seem to find here an account of Stoicism that is detached from Stoic foundations. This is not a shortcoming of the book per se; its focus is, as noted, on ethics, and practical ethics at that, but one may be left wondering just how Stoic or neo-Stoic an account may be that prioritizes, say, the Stoic theory of emotions over the Stoic theory of causality.

Second, the discussion of Stoicism as a “lifehack” and, in particular, Jack Dorsey’s status as a “Silicon Valley entrepreneur drawn to Stoicism” is a bit more sympathetic to Dorsey and his vision than might be warranted. Perhaps Twitter “has functioned as a lifehack for a collective reckoning with racism” (p. 168), but it may have had just the opposite effect. And although, as Sherman notes, “Twitter is a tool, and like any tool, as the ancients taught, it can be used for good or ill” (p. 168), it seems possible that the absence of mediation and the viral nature of much negative emotion may in fact undermine Stoic self-control. Dorsey’s generosity is certainly praiseworthy (pp. 168–69), but I suspect that Twitter itself has not fostered much in the way of a rational examination of emotional responses.

Third, and finally, although Sherman’s reconstruction of Stoicism as a practical ethic is compelling, it’s not quite clear that a Stoic ethic will meet the political challenges of the moment. To be sure, Sherman valuably distinguishes between Stoicism and its political invocations by the “Red Pill community” (p. 174), just as she importantly emphasizes that Stoicism is a deeply social philosophy resting on human engagement with and care for others. But Stoicism seems politically salutary insofar as it is instrumentally good at allowing us to pursue solutions to the problems of our “anxious times” (p. 219); that is, it might foster collective action by forging linkages between us. At the same time, although Sherman is surely correct that our problems can only be addressed “by changing not just us, but the institutions and social structures that frame who we collectively are” (pp. 219–20), it is less clear to me that Stoicism points toward such political solutions.