Stoicism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) Paperback – October 1, 2018 by Brad Inwood (Oxford University Press)

This is a little gem on Stoicism, a topic which these days seems inundated with poorly qualified writers of self-help psychology who have no expertise in classics or philosophy. The author, Professor Brad Inwood, holds joint chairs in Classics and Philosophy at Yale University. He is the editor of Cambridge University Press' Companion to the Stoics, a contributor to Cambridge's History of Hellenistic Philosophy, co-author/editor/translator of Hackett's Stoics Reader, a participant on the Daily Stoic website, plus an accomplished author on ancient philosophy, including the books Reading Seneca: Stoic Philosophy at Rome, and Ethics After Aristotle. Few people are as highly qualified as him to write this entry in Oxford's Very Short Introductions series. Inwood's erudition shows, as he draws upon recent scholarship in the history and philosophy of Stoicism, plus its contemporary revival by the likes of Michel Foucault, Pierre Hadot, and cognitive-behavioral psychology. I studied Stoicism in graduate school, reading original sources in Greek and Latin, and still I've learned from this concise little book, which updates my knowledge with elaborations about (for example) what likely motivated the first Stoics to declare their philosophy as a distinct alternative to Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, and the Cynics. Inwood concisely explains Stoic physics by reference to the Platonic/Aristotelian concept of potentiality and the Stoics' view that free will is compatible with physical determinism; and Stoic logic by reference to the five valid Stoic syllogisms and their interpretation of "if ... then" statements in terms of a kind of relevance (as opposed to the Philonian interpretation which ignores relevance). He includes passages from Plato, Cicero, Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, plus select reading lists of preferred translations of primary texts, including several lesser known ancient Stoics, and of the more insightful secondary sources on Stoicism, including military and business ethics. Highly recommended!