Gregory B. Sadler - That Philosophy Guy

11/12/2025

I recently read one of the best contemporary books for introducing and applying Stoicism in a robust well-informed way. It's Chuck Chakrapani's The Power to Change: Stoic Strategies to Transform Your Life. I'll release a review video on it later this week

shows how to use Stoic principles to create a successful life and provides a clear road map and directions to get there. It will guide you in designing a life that flows well and dealing with problems that arise in everyday living. More than two thousand years ago, a group of philosophers ...

11/12/2025

I opened the site yesterday for enrollment in this 1-day seminar on 3 of Martin Heidegger's works, and as of this morning, we already have 8 students enrolled! There's 30 total seats, and they might fill quickly for this seminar. Find out more here:

A special one-day intensive seminar on three important and influential texts by the 20th century German philosopher, Martin Heidegger: "What Is Metaphysics?", “The Question Concerning Technology”, and “The Origin Of The Work Of Art”. Each of our three 90-minute class sessions will be devoted...

11/12/2025

Here's the full transcript of my recent invited talk at the The Philosophy Of Love And Friendship online conference, hosted by the Plato’s Academy Center. Mostly looking at what Aristotle has to say, with some assists from Cicero, Seneca, and Plutarch!

A talk at the 2025 Love & Relationships Conference

11/12/2025

Our two cat girls Teensy and Sassy. The only survivors of their litter from an apartment fire in NYC. Andi adopted them, and I got to know them when we got together. Teensy unfortunately only made it to 12 years old, but Sassy passed 19 before she died. Both were sweet cuddlers

11/11/2025

My 1-day online seminar working through three key short texts by Martin Heidegger is now open for enrollment! It's coming up Saturday December 6, and its suitable for learners at all levels. Here's a short video about the seminar. Check it out!

Enroll in the intensive 1-day seminar on three key essays of Martin Heidegger on Saturday, December 6 - https://reasonio.teachable.com/p/three-key-heidegger-...

11/11/2025

Here's the last of the Sadler's Lectures podcast episodes on Thomas Aquinas' various discussions of love in the Summa Theologiae (for now). This one looks at whether likeness or similarity is a cause of love or not. As usual, the answer is: it depends...

This lecture discusses key ideas from the medieval Christian philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, 1st part, question 27, "The Causes Of Love", and examines his discussions in a

11/11/2025

I have dozens of "orphaned" papers of different sorts that I've been thinking about bundling into a book down the line. I've decided first to start publishing them in my Substack, starting with this one about Catherine of Alexandria & Christian philosophy

an orphaned paper published in a now-defunct journal

11/11/2025

It's Veterans Day again. 3 years back, I came up with a short list of how we could improve it and make it a lot more meaningful
Fellow veterans, active service members, and military dependents - is there anything you'd add to the list?

11/11/2025

I grew up here and I love the Packers, but you gotta admit, it's a bit weird to see them leading the NFC North over two teams that have more wins than them. They'll be playing the Eagles shortly, so win or lose, that'll change. Go Pack Go!

11/10/2025

Getting caught up on various bits of work, sitting out here in the living room, after teaching an online class session about Kant's Metaphysics of Morals. We're right on the river, and the wind is whipping down it pretty fierce today. Pretty cozy in here. Turned heat on earlier

11/10/2025

I mean, it gets me every time

11/10/2025

Stoic Philosophy makes virtue absolutely central to ethics. If you want to be happy, tranquil, and free, the Stoics think, you must cultivate virtue. They divide virtue into four main or cardinal virtues, which are prudence, justice, courage, and temperance. One of the most important and useful texts for us to learn about the Stoic doctrine of the virtues is Cicero's On Duties, which is his reinterpretation of the middle Stoic Panaetius' lost treatise on ethics. Cicero provides detailed discussions of the cardinal virtues, their subordinate virtues, and their applications in book 1 of that work.

In chapter 20, Cicero notes that the virtue of courage does not bear only on the emotion or passion (perturbatio) of fear, but also on a number of other passions as well. These include desire (cupiditas), which is often for riches, glory, or position, excessive pain or pleasure, and one emotion which he devotes a lot of discussion to, anger.

In chapter 25, he stresses that anger is not characteristic of a brave or magnanimous person, and that we ought to be cultivating in place of anger dispositions of clemency or mercy (clementia) and mildness (mansuetedo). We may need in some cases to punish people for doing wrong, but we can and should do so without anger. In fact, Cicero agrees with the Stoics in holding that anger is in all cases to be rejected.

In chapter 26, he mentions three other emotional comportments that we ought to avoid: haughtiness (fastidium), arrogance, and pride (superbia).

If you'd like to support my work producing videos like this, become a Patreon supporter! Here's the link to find out more - including the rewards I offer backers: https://www.patreon.com/sadler

You can make one-time support at BuyMeACoffee - https://buymeacoffee.com/a4quydwom

You can also make a direct contribution to help fund my ongoing educational projects, by clicking here: https://www.paypal.me/ReasonIO

If you're interested in philosophy tutorial sessions with me, click here: https://reasonio.wordpress.com/tutorials/

If you're interested in philosophical counseling, you can check out my page here - https://reasonio.wordpress.com/philosophical-counseling/