Book180
Meditations
Marcus Aurelius
Private notes on Stoic practice, written by an emperor to himself and never intended to be read by anyone.
about 5 hours to readlink checked 17 Sept 2026FreeEntry
Practical Philosophy
Philosophy meant to be used rather than only discussed.
9 topics · 14 curated works
Topics
- 01Foundations & Overviews1
- 02Stoic Practice2
- 03The Examined Life1
- 04Meaning & Absurdity2
- 05Death & Mortality2
- 06Happiness & the Good Life1
- 07Philosophy as a Way of Life1
- 08Wisdom Traditions2
- 09Thinking Tools & Mental Models2
Reading in Practical Philosophy
14A way in
Start here
No prior grounding assumed.
Meditations
Marcus Aurelius · 180
Private notes on Stoic practice, written by an emperor to himself and never intended to be read by anyone.
+9 more at this level
Then
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
The Absurd
Thomas Nagel · 1971
Locates the absurdity of human life not in any mismatch between our hopes and a hostile universe but in our own capacity to step back and view our…
+1 more at this level
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Primary sources and full treatments.
De Rerum Natura
Lucretius · 50 BCE
Argues in verse that the world is made only of atoms and void, so the soul dies with the body and death is nothing to us, since nothing can be bad…
+1 more at this level
12 of 14 works
Book65
Letters from a Stoic
Seneca
Practical Stoicism delivered as correspondence — on time, wealth, fear and the shortness of a life spent badly.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeEntry
Book1647
The Art of Worldly Wisdom
Baltasar Gracián
Three hundred aphorisms on prudence, reputation and self-command, arguing that worldly wisdom is a practical skill to be cultivated deliberately rather than a virtue one either has or lacks.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeEntry
Book1665
Maxims
François de La Rochefoucauld
Several hundred aphorisms arguing that self-love is the hidden motive behind almost every virtue people claim credit for, including most of what passes for generosity and honesty.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeEntry
Essay1851
On Thinking for Oneself
Arthur Schopenhauer
Argues that reading too much and too passively fills the mind with other people's thoughts at the expense of one's own, and that genuine understanding requires thinking a question through independently first.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeEntry
Essay1864
The Art of Being Right: 38 Ways to Win an Argument
Arthur Schopenhauer
Catalogues the stratagems debaters actually use to win an argument regardless of who is right, presented deadpan as a manual so a reader can recognise and resist them.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeEntry
Essay1895
Is Life Worth Living?
William James
Argues that whether life is worth living is itself an open question whose answer depends partly on the liver's own belief and effort, so that believing life can be worth living is one of the conditions of making it so.
link failing as of 17 Sept 2026FreeEntry
Book1930
The Conquest of Happiness
Bertrand Russell
Diagnoses unhappiness as largely self-caused, rooted in excessive self-absorption, and argues happiness is best won by directing outward interest and enthusiasm toward people and pursuits beyond oneself.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeEntry
Book1989
The Examined Life: Philosophical Meditations
Robert Nozick
A series of personal meditations on death, love, faith and the meaning of life, written as philosophy that thinks out loud about how to live rather than argues to a settled conclusion.
PaidEntry
Series2008
Death with Shelly Kagan
Shelly Kagan (YaleCourses)
Argues that physicalism about persons is correct and that death is therefore annihilation, then asks whether that conclusion licenses fear, and concludes it largely does not.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeEntry
Paper1971
The Absurd
Thomas Nagel
Locates the absurdity of human life not in any mismatch between our hopes and a hostile universe but in our own capacity to step back and view our most serious pursuits from outside, with detached bewilderment.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Book1995
Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault
Pierre Hadot
Argues that ancient philosophy was above all a set of practical spiritual exercises meant to transform how a person lives, and that later philosophy narrowed this into abstract discourse, losing the exercises along the way.
PaidIntermediate
In order written
50 BCE – 2008- 50 BCEDe Rerum NaturaLucretius
- 45 BCEDe Finibus Bonorum et MalorumMarcus Tullius Cicero
- 65Letters from a StoicSeneca
- 180MeditationsMarcus Aurelius
- 1647The Art of Worldly WisdomBaltasar Gracián
- 1665MaximsFrançois de La Rochefoucauld
- 1851On Thinking for OneselfArthur Schopenhauer
- 1864The Art of Being Right: 38 Ways to Win an ArgumentArthur Schopenhauer
- 1895Is Life Worth Living?William James
- 1930The Conquest of HappinessBertrand Russell
- 1971The AbsurdThomas Nagel
- 1989The Examined Life: Philosophical MeditationsRobert Nozick
- 1995Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to FoucaultPierre Hadot
- 2008Death with Shelly KaganShelly Kagan (YaleCourses)