Reading paths
An unhurried way into the classics: each day, a real passage from a primary source and a question to pull that thread further in the chat. No rush — follow the path at whatever pace you like.
The Inner CitadelFrom Epictetus to Seneca and Marcus Aurelius: what depends on you and what does not, and what happens when that distinction is taken seriously — with imagination, with death, with other people.7 daysThe Gadfly of AthensSocrates according to Plato — the examined life, the spoken word, the death — and two echoes: Marcus Aurelius repeating his moral thesis, and Mill preferring him dissatisfied to a fool satisfied.7 daysThe Way and the NameLaozi and Confucius, the two answers of classical China — the stillness of water and the rectitude of duty — with Sun Tzu as the counterpoint of the world as it is.7 daysThe Burning HouseFrom the Dhammapada to the Lotus and Diamond Sutras: mind first, hatred that only ceases by love, and all things as a dream and a flash of lightning — with the Gita defending the immortal self the Buddha denies.7 daysThe Despotism of CustomFrom Kant to Mill, Wollstonecraft and Bakunin: who smothers liberty — the state, custom or inequality — and what it costs to choose your own plan of life.7 daysA Life of One's OwnThoreau, Emerson, Montaigne and Schopenhauer: how to leave quiet desperation behind, and what it means to possess yourself without insulting the life you were given.7 daysThe Political AnimalFrom Aristotle to Hobbes, Rousseau and Kropotkin: why the state exists, where it gets the right to command, and whether nature dictates a war of all against all — or mutual aid.7 daysA Rope over an AbyssFrom 'God is dead' to 'become what you are': the crisis, man as a crossing, the danger of gazing into the abyss, and the discipline of not replacing God with new convictions.7 daysBefore SocratesQoheleth, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles and Anaxagoras: what remains when everything flows — vapour, Being, Love and Strife, Mind — and the echo of the river in Marcus Aurelius.7 daysThe Restless HeartMicah, the Quran, Augustine, Anselm, al-Ghazali and Thomas Aquinas: three traditions before the same God, between desire, reason and grace.7 days