The Good Life Podcast with Sean Murray

#51 – How to Live A Good Life with Massimo Pigliucci

Feb 15, 2021

55:47

Today’s guest is Massimo Pigliucci, a professor of Philosophy at the city College of New York. He has written extensively about Stoicism, but today's topic is much broader than that. Massimo has a new book out titled " How to Live a Good Life: A Guide to Choosing Your Personal Philosophy." It’s a series of essays, each dedicated to a different philosophy of life, and written by a practitioner of that philosophy. Massimo edited the volume, along with Sky Cleary and Dan Kaufman, and he wrote the essay on Stoicism.

In this episode Massimo covers the big ideas, and we compare and contrast, various traditions and philosophies such as Buddhism, Epicureanism, Daoism, Confucianism and stoicism. and we do a deeper dive into Stoicism since that is Massimo's preferred philosophy of life. Massimo also talks about the three components of a philosophy of life, and why it's important for everyone to have a philosophy of life.

What You'll Learn

• The three components of a philosophy of life

• The importance of having a philosophy of life

• The benefits of learning about other philosophies of life

• Tenets of Buddhism

• The "Rapacious Ego"

• The Buddhist concepts of suffering and the "no self"

• The Daoist concept of "flowing like water"

• The Stoic principles of "the obstacle becomes the way" and "dichotomy of control"

• Eudaimonia - A life Worth Living

• Aristotle's view living a good life

• The four cardinal virtues