Change ), https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1853186261, Mental Technique To Create Clarity Around Difficult Life Decisions + Other Adaptations, An Extract From Gary Vee’s Audio Experience – On Company Culture. When the author traveled through the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, for example, he met a humble Berber family. We’re to view them as neither good nor bad, but indifferent. In fact, I’m certain that if we asked the community of Stoics online a great many would say, pace Irvine, that “virtue” in the ancient sense of the word is actually something they’re very interested in. And more importantly to not focus on what we cannot control – in this example whether we become famous or indeed successful in our chosen pursuit(s). By taking control of the stories we tell ourselves, by remembering that `everything's fine' even when it might not feel that way, we can allow ourselves to flourish and to live more happily. If you’re in that game you’re basically the boy who cried wolf. However, if your philosophy makes flourishing as a human being and fulfilling your potential the main thing then you’re probably going to want to engage with other people and the world around you. While at the university, Derren got influenced by the performance of hypnotherapist Martin S. Taylor and decided to pursue hypnosis as a career. That philosophy is borne out in everyday experience. Curious? Somewhat paradoxically, therefore, Brown ends up worrying that Stoicism might actually lead to avoidance: The Stoics tell us to ‘remove disturbances’, but for some this might come to mean ‘hiding away safely’ where nothing can harm them. This multi-award-winning master of mental illusion has actually performed several phase shows in addition to tv shows. Epicurus’s central insight is the foundation stone of Stoicism. But the reason for this is to walk out into the world with strength, not to hide from danger. I’ve spoken to countless people about Stoicism over the past twenty years or so – last year, for example, seven thousand people enrolled on Stoic Week and many provided us with detailed feedback on their experiences and attitudes toward the philosophy. Ali Abdaal. I think people realize that when they turn to the primary sources, such as The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, and, in fact, that’s part of their enduring appeal. I grant that he is sensitive to these things, for we do not impute to him the hardness of a rock or of iron. Yet if we have a lingering doubt about its all-encompassing wisdom, it is perhaps because some part of us remains unmoved. I quite like Derren Brown, though, even though I’m not really into magic, because I get the impression he’s as much of a nerd about the history of philosophy and psychology as I am. Nowadays it’s often rendered as “flourishing” instead. Curbing your curiosity helps preserve your peace of mind. That’s precisely because virtue, fulfilling our potential, is infinitely more important to the Stoics than maintaining their inner peace or tranquillity. (Side note: Sometimes people assume that I hate Irvine’s book when in fact I’ve been recommending it to people for years, with the caveat that they should take note of the bit where he says himself that it’s “unlike” what we normally mean by Stoicism – there’s a world of difference between disagreeing with something and disliking it!). Stoics trust first impressions and cultivate greater self-awareness. The need to fix, to control is what fuels the anxiety in the first place. What I liked about this section and indeed with all of Derren’s writing is his ability to reduce quite complex ideas into bite-sized pieces to consume and digest. I’ve found that they’re typically drawn to the philosophy precisely because it offers a rational guide to life, and promises a sense of deeper fulfilment. That’s not well explained in many books on the subject but it’s extremely important if we want to understand Stoicism as a psychological therapy, and I think it probably answers some of Brown’s criticisms. Take-home messages. Today, he is regarded as the first thinker in the history of Western philosophy to analyze that relationship seriously. Ironically, though, that would be more in agreement with ye olde Stoicism as conventionally understood by all the famous Stoics: the “virtue is its own reward” philosophy described above by Julia Annas rather than Irvine’s more tranquillity-centric version. According to Epicurus, happiness isn’t dependent on material goods – what really matters is how we feel about possessing or lacking certain things. Agoraphobic? Why? We’re told these automatic emotional reactions (propatheiai) are inevitable, and because they’re not “up to us” we’re not to view them as bad or harmful but rather to actively adopt an attitude of “indifference” toward them. Some reviewers, myself included, have argued that Irvine’s version of Stoicism ends up being, in some respects, more like Epicureanism. Derren Brown is a famous British illusionist, trickster, mentalist, therapist, skeptic, writer and painter. People for whom tranquillity or peace of mind is the main goal are more drawn to Epicureanism, as you might expect. Packed with insights into the robust and rational outlooks of these Greek and Roman sages, these blinks illuminate a vital chapter in the history of Western philosophy while … Stoic Book Review: Antifragile by Nassim Taleb, Last Chance: Modern Stoicism Virtual Conference, How Marcus Aurelius wrote The Meditations. Another worrying thought experiment for this philosophy is: what if it turned out to be more conducive to your tranquillity to collaborate with an oppressive regime like the Nazis than to defy them? You can’t change the world around you, but you can change how you react to it. Here is a quick description and cover image of book Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine written by Derren Brown which was published in 2016-9-22. Sometimes appearances are misleading. Man, by contrast, would still be worrying about it weeks later. You have to be looking quite closely perhaps to spot this but Irvine himself actually mentions in passing that his version of “Stoicism” is not Stoicism as conventionally understood because he replaces the goal of virtue with that of tranquillity. There is no virtue in putting up with that which one does not feel. A great deal. It sets out to change lives - and it will. The Stoics contrast these “passions” with the propatheiai or “proto-passions”, also called the “first movements” of passion. So here goes…. Derren Brown is said to have been banned from all gambling establishments in Britain. To exercise courage we have to actually experience some anxiety. However, it’s generally understood that positive feelings like these were a byproduct of wisdom, for Stoics, rather than the goal of life itself. Brown takes philosophy back to its truest task: that of helping us to live and die well. The answer according to Derren Brown? Upgrade to Premium now and get unlimited access to the Blinkist library. It's my most highlighted book on Kindle (by a very long way) and while I was reading it, I found myself nodding my head like a lunatic on almost every page. They owned next to nothing, but that didn’t matter a bit. For instance, if generally being nice to people happened to lead to lasting tranquillity that might seem workable as a philosophy of life. These “passions” are not really emotions as we normally think of them today, though. Derren has pulled off a properly implausible trick: that of making the deepest ideas relevant, humane and urgent." Paying attention to our inner experiences tends to amplify them, creating a vicious cycle. I’m still in awe of how far ahead of its time it was because it happens to resemble, in particular, Aaron T. Beck’s “revised” model of anxiety, which is kind of state-of-the-art cognitive therapy. Also, I have started reading George Orwell and I have a vague suspicion that Brown has been influenced by Orwell’s writings . Derren mentioned in an interview in 2007 that he is a gay. Personally, I’d say it’s a much healthier and more realistic goal than perfect tranquillity, which, as a therapist, sets alarm bells ringing for me because it sounds like a classic perfectionism and a recipe for neurosis. Brown diplomatically uses Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret (2006) as an example because most reasonable people seem to agree that’s basically mumbo jumbo but he presumably has in mind a much broader category of self-help and New Age hokum. Happiness, as people tend to mean the word today, i.e., “feeling good”, is merely the appearance of flourishing.