A Guide to the Good Life

Overview

A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (2009) is William B. Irvine's introduction to the practice of Stoicism for the modern reader, and the book that revived the ancient discipline of negative visualization as the centerpiece of the modern Stoic practice. The book has two parts: the first is the exposition of the Stoic philosophy — the account of the ancient school, its doctrines, and its practices; the second is the demonstration of the practice — the application of the Stoic disciplines to the modern life. The book's most influential contribution is its account of negative visualization — the Stoic practice of imagining the loss of what we value, which Irvine presents as the most efficient path to the gratitude and the appreciation that the modern life, in its abundance, so often lacks.

Author

William B. Irvine is an American philosopher, a professor at Wright State University, and the author of several books on the philosophy of life. His A Guide to the Good Life (2009) was one of the founding texts of the modern Stoic revival, and it introduced the ancient philosophy to a generation of readers who found in it a practical discipline for the contemporary world. His account of negative visualization — the practice he calls "the most valuable of all Stoic exercises" — has become a staple of the modern Stoic literature.

Historical Background

The book belongs to the modern revival of Stoicism, which began in the late twentieth century with the scholarly recovery of the Stoic texts and the discovery of the Stoic roots of cognitive behavioral therapy, and which was popularized in the early twenty-first century by the books of the new Stoic movement. A Guide to the Good Life was among the first of the popular books, and it set the pattern for the revival: the accessible exposition of the ancient philosophy, combined with the practical application of the disciplines to the modern life.

Key Ideas

The book's central thesis is that the Stoics developed a philosophy that can genuinely improve the modern life, and that its most valuable practice is negative visualization. The practice is simple: regularly, deliberately imagine the loss of what you value — your health, your wealth, your loved ones, your life — and let the imagination produce the two fruits of the practice: the gratitude for what you have, and the preparation for the loss that will come. Irvine argues that the practice is the most efficient path to the joy: the person who has imagined losing everything appreciates everything, and the appreciation is the foundation of the happiness that the modern abundance, taken for granted, cannot provide.

The book also presents the other Stoic practices: the trichotomy of control (Irvine's refinement of the dichotomy), the discipline of desire, the practice of the inner citadel, and the daily review. And it addresses the objections to the practice — the charge that Stoicism is cold, that the acceptance is the passivity, that the philosophy cannot handle the modern complexities — with the arguments that the Stoics themselves would have given.

Important Passages

The book's most influential passages are the accounts of negative visualization: "By contemplating the impermanence of everything, we are reminded of the importance of enjoying the things we have while we have them"; and the summary of the practice's power: "The negative visualization is the most valuable of all Stoic exercises, because it is the exercise that produces the appreciation of what we have." The account of the trichotomy of control — the division of things into what is up to us, what is not, and what is partly up to us — is among the most cited of the modern refinements of the Stoic doctrine.

Influence

A Guide to the Good Life was one of the founding texts of the modern Stoic revival, and its account of negative visualization has become the signature practice of the revival: the exercise that the modern Stoics recommend above all others, and the practice that the popular books of the movement — from The Daily Stoic to the daily practice of the modern Stoic community — have made central. The book brought the ancient philosophy to a new generation of readers, and it remains one of the standard entry points into the modern practice of Stoicism.

Sources

• Irvine, William B. A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
• Marcus Aurelius. Meditations. Trans. Gregory Hays. New York: Modern Library, 2002.
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Stoicism" (plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism)