Scattered Thoughts, Part 2
It has been a long month. With the birth of my son Theodore I’ve been overwhelmed — and yet, I am probably the happiest that I have ever been. I plan to start writing regularly again in July, including continuing (and finishing) our series through Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations. Thank you all for your patience while I rearrange my life.
Below, I’m sharing some scattered thoughts. You can expect one more in this series before normal posting resumes.
Donald Robertson and Andrew Tate
Over at Stoicism: Philosophy as a Way of Life, Donald Robertson decided to weigh in on some comments made by Andrew Tate about Stoicism. Some of his criticisms are similar to what I argued in a post a few months ago. Both posts are linked below.
One point that Roberston makes that I ignored in my post, however, is that it actually isn’t clear that Andrew Tate has ever read Marcus Aurelius or the other Stoics. He seems to let the interviewer continue on with the assumption that he has done the reading, but nothing he says indicates familiarity with the text.
I’ll repeat a paragraph from my own post:
Some will see that the likes of Tate use Stoicism to promote their own ends, and they will base their assessment of Stoicism on that. To these people, I want to offer a word of caution. We should not judge an ancient school of philosophy based on some modern perversions. We should go ad fontes — back to the sources. Read Marcus, Epictetus, Seneca, or Cicero and then make up your mind about Stoicism. I think you’ll be surprised.
A new favorite Substack
During my month off, I’ve been doing a lot of home improvement projects. My father is a hobbyist woodworker, restoring hand tools and then using them to build some very nice furniture. I am an amateur carpenter, but I think I will be spending more time doing this. So far, I’ve built a bookcase and some floating shelves. At least I’m being practical — I’m trying to finally have enough storage for all of our books.
This new hobby led me to the writings of Christopher Schwarz, a prolific writer and dedicated woodworker. In 2007, Schwarz founded Lost Art Press to produce high-quality books on woodworking and carpentry. They operate on some simple principles, which I’ve reproduced from their website:
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