During these seminars, we will be referencing a number of passages and portions of texts either by Stoics or by non-Stoics providing us summaries of what Stoic positions are.

Reading these passages in advance is not required, but by be quite useful for you, since we will be focusing on determining what the classic Stoic positions on these three tricky and complex topics actually are, and there's no better way to do that than to look at the texts we have.

One thing to keep in mind before you get started is that you are likely to find some either apparent or real differences between the different Stoics on these matters. Sometimes this might be reflective of the fact that these texts are written in two different languages originally, Greek and Latin, and even the wording will vary from author to author when they are discussing the same matters. The English translations can at times obscure the meanings somewhat as well. But while for the most part Stoics are in general agreement, they do sometime differ from each other as well on certain issues as well.

Another thing it might be helpful to keep in mind is that ideas like those we are discussing are not as simple and straightforward as one might think or desire. Some of the basic points about them might be fairly simple, but that's not the entirety of any one of these key Stoic ideas. If the goal is to fully understand them, then one will need to get comfortable with them being more complex than just a catch-phrase or a single quote.

The third bit of advice I'll give is that you needn't place yourself under an obligation to entirely understand any of these Stoic ideas before the seminar. That's the point of providing this educational opportunity, for you to work through these with an expert guide on Stoic philosophy who can help you better and more fully understand these ideas. In fact, they may not make complete sense to you even after the seminar, and that's all right. Sometimes ideas like these take a while to entirely sink in.