Zach Young

Philosophy - BA (Hons)

With the recent outbreak of Coronavirus, one needs only to look at the news to see that times are as turbulent as they’ve ever been. This global pandemic has woken everyone up to the realisation that some things are simply not in our control, that our personal and professional lives can be turned upside down through no fault of our own. The lives of friends and family members can be snatched away, jobs can be lost, and pubs can be closed. Stoicism can help prepare us for these eventualities which is why it’s important to have a coherent version of the philosophy that can withstand the scrutiny of modern science and philosophy. This dissertation sets out to demonstrate that a coherent model of modern Stoicism is not only desirable but also attainable. Drawing on the work of modern Stoic philosophers such as Massimo Pigliucci and Lawrence Becker, Zach Young lays out some of the changes being made to the Stoic philosophy and attempts to provide them with a justification. His motivation for doing so lies in his strong belief that philosophy has become distracted from its original purpose which was to teach people how to live well.