A Guide to the Good Life

Irvine, a philosophy professor, presents Stoicism as a practical programme rather than as a historical subject. He argues that most people never choose a philosophy of life and therefore pursue whatever their environment supplies, and that Stoicism offers a defensible goal, which he identifies as tranquility, meaning the absence of negative emotions and the presence of positive ones.

The techniques are the book's contribution. Negative visualisation, which Irvine treats as the central Stoic practice, means deliberately contemplating the loss of what you have, which he argues counteracts hedonic adaptation and converts current circumstances into something noticed rather than assumed. The trichotomy of control modifies Epictetus, splitting things into those over which we have complete control, no control, and some control, with the third category handled by internalising goals, so that a tennis player aims to play as well as possible rather than to win.

Other techniques include fatalism about the past and present, meaning treating what has already happened as fixed; voluntary discomfort, meaning deliberately experiencing cold, hunger or hardship to reduce fear of them and to increase appreciation; and self-denial as training rather than as asceticism. Irvine also covers the Stoic handling of insults, grief, anger, fame and luxury, with practical advice in each case.

Academic philosophers have criticised the trichotomy as a departure from what the Stoics held, and Irvine's identification of tranquility as the goal replaces virtue, which was the actual Stoic position. His treatment of Stoic physics and of the rational cosmos is minimal. Readers wanting historical accuracy should go to the primary texts. Readers wanting a usable programme will find this the clearest available.