Deliberate Conduct takes its cue from the Stoics without treating them as scripture. Most of today’s questions are the same ones they answered: what is in our hands, how to respond instead of react, how to act well when nothing cooperates. The answers here are tested against modern life, plain reasoning and common sense. No guru tone, no quotes as decoration, no promise that philosophy will fix your week.
What the site covers
The site has two parts. What Stoicism Is explains the ideas that hold the philosophy up: the dichotomy of control, the gap between stimulus and response, principle over impulse and the four virtues. Practical Stoicism applies them: the daily practices, work, money, couples and parenting, deciding and holding a decision, happiness without hedonism, the Stoic ideas inside popular books and the quotes, read in context.
Who writes it
Deliberate Conduct is written by Eric Brennan and published by Deliberate Endeavours.
Eric Brennan has a long career in finance and management. What always interested him most was how decisions get made, and he saw early that many ideas from running a business work just as well in the rest of life. By trial and error he settled on a few convictions that made deciding less uncomfortable. He read Stephen Covey, Dale Carnegie, Spencer Johnson, Jim Collins and many other management bestsellers, and around 2005 he turned to the Stoics, who had put into words more than two thousand years ago ideas that today’s management writing keeps rediscovering. He has spent years sharing a way of thinking inspired by those principles, without fanaticism.
How we work
- Quotes come from a named source. Every quotation from Marcus Aurelius, Seneca or Epictetus gives the book and section, and comes from a public domain translation that anyone can check online, usually George Long’s Meditations and Enchiridion and Richard Gummere’s Letters.
- Paraphrases are called paraphrases. When a popular line is a modern rewording, or was never said by the person it is credited to, we say so. See Stoic quotes the Stoics never said.
- Research is cited as research. When an article mentions a study, it names the authors and the journal and links to it, and it says when the evidence is thin.
- Disagreement is allowed. The Stoics were wrong about some things. When an idea does not survive modern knowledge or common sense, we say that too.
- Corrections are welcome. If you find an error, write to [email protected]. We fix it and change the date on the page.
What we are not
Deliberate Conduct is philosophy for everyday life. It is not therapy, medical advice or financial advice. Some articles touch on anxiety, grief, anger or money; if you are struggling, a qualified professional is a better first step than any book or website, ancient or modern.
The newsletter
Stoic Override is the newsletter: one idea a week for the moment between what happens and what you do about it.