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Comment by alabut | Hacker News Reader

I also liked the article's critique of Western philosophy as being too analytical and divorced from real life. Apparently that wasn't always the case in the ancient world and philosophy had more practical application, which probably explains the revival of Stoicism lately as well.

A good starter book on the Stoics that also reinterprets the ancient lessons for the modern age:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0040JHNQG/

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I wonder if Stoicism's rise is also related to organized religion's decline and society's increasing secularization, since both Stoicism and organized religion give concrete guidelines on how you go about your day-to-day.

Western philosophy has been divorced from real life for quite a while, and Stoicism's rise seems relatively young comparatively.

I've always thought that the revival of Stoicism is because 20th century philosophy messed with our heads to such an extent that we were left with an empty husk of our former selves, like ghosts floating in a meaningless world, and all we could do was laugh at ourselves to exhaustion lest we commit suicide.

Maybe I'm just talking about myself.

No, I think it's a reaction against the new-agey types that pick up stuff so often from Eastern philosophical and religious traditions. Basically it's new-agey stuff for people that would never be willing to conceive of themselves as anything like a new-agey person.

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