Fall Reading List
Psychology, nature, Buddhism, art, and more
Reminder: Stoicon takes place tomorrow, October 18! Our theme is engaged citizenship. See the schedule and get your tickets here.
It’s been a while since I shared a reading list, so I thought this would be a good time to tell you what I’ve been reading so far this year. Today I’m arranging the list thematically, with four main themes: art and beauty; psychology and sociology; nature/environment; and wisdom traditions (Stoicism, Christianity, Buddhism). As the days get shorter and the nights get colder and longer, I hope you find something to kindle your spirits and keep you mentally fired up.
But before we jump into books, here’s a recommendation for something to watch on YouTube. If you’ve never seen an episode of Tasting History with Max Miller, stop what you’re doing and go check out this delightful, enlightening, and entertaining channel. Miller recreates recipes based on historical sources, ranging from ancient Egypt to the Renaissance to the not-so-distant past. It’s a really fun way to explore history, even if—like me—you don’t end up cooking many of the dishes. (If you prefer to see recipes in book form, you can also get the cookbook, Tasting History: Explore the Past through 4,000 Years of Recipes.) And if you’re in the mood for some lentils, try making the lentil soup from the How to Eat Like an Ancient Stoic episode. Zeno would approve!
Now moving onto books…
Wisdom Traditions (Stoicism, Christianity, Buddhism)
Highlights: I’ve always known there were many similarities between Buddhist and Stoic ethics, but reading the Dalai Lama’s book, Beyond Religion, was still astonishing. The similarities are really striking, from the shared emphasis on common humanity to the role of wisdom (or discernment, to use the preferred Buddhist term) to the idea that money, possessions, and social status do not equate to happiness. Of course, many of these ideas are also shared by Christianity, and if you have an interest in religion I highly recommend the two books here on Stoicism and Christianity. Once again we see that true wisdom transcends one particular tradition—it is, rather a result of the human experience and is open to humans in every corner of the world.
Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World (Dalai Lama)
Music of Silence: A Sacred Journey Through the Hours of the Day (David Steindl-Rast and Sharon Lebell)
Nothing Special (Charlotte Joko Beck)
Protestant Virtue and Stoic Ethics (Elizabeth Agnew Cochran)
Stoicism in Early Christianity (ed. Tuomas Rasimus, Troels Engburg-Pedersen, Ismo Dunderberg)
The Stoics and the State - Theory, Practice, Context (Jula Wildberger)
Art and Craft
Highlights: Earlier this year I did a deep dive into aesthetics, craft, and the physicality of objects. I have previously shared some of the following books on wabi sabi, but I haven’t had a chance to write in depth about one of my favorite books in this group: Material and Mind by Christopher Bardt. This one really captured my interest because Bardt makes a very strong case for the connections between our physical and mental worlds, which I think has a very Stoic basis. Maybe I will write more about it at some point, but for those interested in a highly theoretical exploration of person and environment, I recommend reading it yourself. In the same vein—but from a more everyday perspective—Glenn Adamson in Fewer, Better Things suggests that the loss of our physical connection with objects is causing many of the psychological and physiological problems prevalent in our society today. If you’re interested in perception, craft, or the mind-body connection, these books are definitely worth a look.
A Theory of Craft: Function and Aesthetic Expression (Howard Risatti)
Fewer, Better Things: The Hidden History of Objects (Glenn Adamson)
Material and Mind (Christopher Bardt)
Six Names of Beauty (Crispin Sartwell)
The Arts and Crafts Movement (Elizabeth Cummins and Wendy Kaplan)
Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers (Leonard Koren)
Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence - Understanding the Zen Philosophy of Beauty in Simplicity (Andrew Juniper)
Psychology and Sociology
Highlight: I really enjoyed The Experience Machine by Andy Clark, but I didn’t write about it here because the science behind his theory remains speculative and controversial. Still, it’s really interesting to think that our brains might be predicting the environment around us and that a range of mental problems might be caused when this predictive capacity is damaged. It’s worth of your time if you are interested in neuroscience, theory of mind, or similar topics.
A History of Solitude (David Vincent)
Belonging: The Ancient Code of Togetherness (Owen Eastwood)
Conditions of Love: The Philosophy of Intimacy (John Armstrong)
Dignity, Character, and Self-Respect (Robin S. Dillon)
One for Joy: An Introvert’s Guide to the Secret World of Solitude (Tom Albrighton)
The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality (Andy Clark)
The Social Paradox: Autonomy, Connection, and Why We Need Both to Find Happiness (William von Hippel)
Nature/Environment
Highlights: Readers of Stoicism for Humans will know that nature is one of my primary interests, not least because our aim as Stoics is to live in agreement with nature. I read two of the books on this list, The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram and Character and Environment by Ronald Sandler, at the same time, and they were an interesting study in contrasts. Both talk about the human relationship with nature, but from completely opposite angles.
The Spell of the Sensuous is about how traditional societies experience a direct connection with the natural world. This two-way relationship—in which tribal peoples both seek to influence and are in turn influenced by natural elements such as plants, animals, weather, and earth elements—was regarded by Westerners (especially early Christian missionaries and 20th-century anthropologists) as a sort of shamanistic religion. Abram, however, argues that it’s more of a respectful dialogue between humans and nature, one that was naturally encoded in human cultures and sustained over many generations. The loss of this dialogic relationship has resulted in environmental degradation of various kinds and is responsible for the environmental crises in which we find ourselves today.
Meanwhile, Character and Environment approaches the same problem through the lens of virtue ethics. Whereas Abram takes a phenomenological approach, leaning especially on the work of Merleau-Ponty, Sandler develops a “pluralistic, virtue-oriented environmental ethic.” These two books may be a somewhat unlikely pair, but the fact that they come from radically different angles and yet point to the same broad conclusion—that in order to solve our environmental crises, we must have a certain (virtuous) disposition toward the natural world—makes this core argument even more meaningful.
On the other hand, maybe it’s not so surprising that they both come to similar conclusions about humans and nature. For some reason we tend to look back on humans of the past as somehow not as smart as we are, which of course is a mistake. They are us, and we are them. People have always been alert to patterns in their environment, and until very recently it would have been obvious that human success depended on the success of the natural world. We evolved to co-exist with the plant and animal life around us. Living in agreement with nature is what humans naturally do. The Spell of the Sensuous provides anthropological evidence for this timeless truth, while Character and Environment puts it into modern-day philosophical terms. Both books are rewarding reads for anyone concerned with nature and ethics.
Become Earth: A Journey Through the Hidden Wonders that Bring Our Planet to Life (Ferris Jabr)
Character and Environment: A Virtue-Oriented Approach to Environmental Ethics (Ronald Sandler)
Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard (Douglas W. Tallamy)
The Flow: Rivers, Water, and Wildness (Amy-Jane Beer)
The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World (David Abram)
This is a great list. On another note, I hope Stoicon goes well tomorrow. I am bummed that I am not able to attend the live session. I will be organizing our local No Kings event.