A midlife crisis is usually a motorcycle or a sports car, but for Massimo Pigliucci it was becoming a stoic philosopher.
Pigliucci is a professor of philosophy at the City University of New York, the co-host of the podcast “Rationally Speaking” and the former editor-in-chief for the online magazine Scientia Salon. He has an evolutionary biology doctoral degree from the University of Connecticut and a philosophy degree from the University of Tennessee. He also maintains two websites, one of which is an older version, full of podcasts, videos, articles and multiple philosophical books including his most recent publication “How to Be a Stoic.”
His interests include the philosophy of biology, the correlation between science and philosophy, and the nature of pseudoscience, which is a collection of beliefs mistakenly regarded as being based off of the scientific method. Pugliucci’s most well known topic of interest, however, is stoicism.
This is an ancient Greek philosophy founded in Athens, and it teaches that virtue is based on knowledge and it addresses the broader question of a meaningful life. Stoicism, in Pigliucci’s view, offers a compass to navigate life, setting your priorities, becoming a better citzen of the world, preparing for the ultimate character test of death.
Pigliucci will be at the University of Wyoming on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in UW’s College of Business Scarlett Auditorium to speak about stoicism as a philosophy of life. Throughout his speech he will answer multiple questions including: What is a philosophy of life? Who needs philosophy and why? He will specifically speak on stoicism as a philosophy. Also, Pigliucci will argue that philosophy is experiencing a comeback in the 21st century. This is free and open to the public, hosted by the UW Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies.
Pigliucci actually reached out to Robert S. Colter, the graduate advisor in the department, because he had gotten wind of Colter’s stoic camp, which Colter has been hosting for the past five summers in the Snowy Range. Pigliucci wished to start his own camp in New York in order to spread the stoic lifestyle around the world a little more.
“We are very excited to be hosting Massimo Pigliucci at the University of Wyoming,” Colter said in a release. “He is one of the leading figures in the modern stoicism movement and brings a contemporary perspective to ideas of a 2,000-year-old tradition that guided the lives of such figures as Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Stoicism offers a way of situating ourselves successfully in a world largely out of our control, which may never have been more relevant than today.”
In addition to speaking to the public about stoicism on Tuesday night, Pigliucci will do a faculty reading over his book “How to be a Stoic.” Colter is hoping that in this reading Pigliucci will be able to answer some of his questions and convince Colter of some of his answers to life stated in his book. Also, Colter has promised a hike or canoe ride if the weather permits it, but in reality Colter simply wants some time to pick Pigliucci’s brain of all his stoic and philosophy of biology knowledge.
www.uwyo.edu/uw/news/2018/09/stoicism-scholar-pigliucci-to-speak-at-uw-oct.-9.html
