How Does A Stoic Deal With Grief? A Modern Stoicism Conversation - Sadler's Lectures

14/12/2025 20 min
How Does A Stoic Deal With Grief? A Modern Stoicism Conversation - Sadler's Lectures

Listen "How Does A Stoic Deal With Grief? A Modern Stoicism Conversation - Sadler's Lectures"

Episode Synopsis

This is the recording of my short presentation and the Q&A at the second Conversations With Modern Stoicism event, hosted in June 2025 by Phil Yanov. Asked to give a short and provocative presentation about an issue that arises in the everyday applications of Stoicism, we decided on the topic of grief and grieving

I first discuss what we can call a "standard Stoic take" on grief, which they understand as belonging to the broader emotional category of pain or distress, and therefore being something bad for us. We then look briefly at some of the treatments of grief and grieving in Epictetus and Seneca.

Texts mentioned in this talk:
Marcus Aurelius' Meditations - https://amzn.to/3osPFNF
Epictetus' Discourses and Enchiridion - https://amzn.to/37G6bE0
Seneca's Letters - https://amzn.to/3dZQrNk
Cicero's Tusculan Disputations - https://amzn.to/3L1WoxY

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