Socrates said that money in itself is neither good nor bad. But what matters is the use that you make of it, he says. And whether that's good or bad depends on how you use it. So for example, if you give a billion dollars to an evil dictator, like that may be bad because he might use it to do more evil dictatorial things,. You're just giving them more control. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is going to depend on the type of person they are. That becomes the core or centerpiece of stoic philosophy, basically. The subtext there is that most people initially will confuse the superficial or secondary goods with the goal of life
This is the audio of an interview I gave recently for Book Club with Kaiden Kelly, talking about How to Think Like a Roman Emperor, Verissimus, and Stoicism, self-help and modern psychology.
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