Stoicism as a Mass Phenomenon – Alejandra de Argos

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Stoicism as a Mass Phenomenon

Written by Iker Martínez Fernández<br>Published: June 23, 2026

In recent years Stoicism has grown so popular that it has become a mass phenomenon. Hardly a week goes by without the general press offering us a newly published Stoic synthesis just out in the bookshops, or a cursory analysis of the reasons for the return of this ancient philosophy. All sorts of Stoic podcasts circulate on the internet; youtubers, opinion leaders and great entrepreneurs claim to promote Stoic values, and the Greco-Roman classics of this school, such as Epictetus or Marcus Aurelius, find a place in bookshop windows for the first time.

In recent years Stoicism has grown so popular that it has become a mass phenomenon. Hardly a week goes by without the general press offering us a newly published Stoic synthesis just out in the bookshops, or a cursory analysis of the reasons for the return of this ancient philosophy. All sorts of Stoic podcasts circulate on the internet; youtubers, opinion leaders and great entrepreneurs claim to promote Stoic values, and the Greco-Roman classics of this school, such as Epictetus or Marcus Aurelius, find a place in bookshop windows for the first time. The Meditations of the philosopher-emperor is at present the most widely translated text of a Roman author into Spanish. In 2023 Arpa and Trotta brought us two new translations by David Hernandez de la Fuente and Jorge Cano Cuenca, respectively. For its part, Alianza Editorial has published, edited by Ignacio Pajon Leyra, a compilation of texts by Epictetus under the title The Art of Living in Difficult Times. These are very valuable works that join others already existing in our language.

The recovery of Stoicism is not a novel fact, but a trend that began at the end of the twentieth century with the publication of the work A New Stoicism, by Lawrence Becker. Becker knows the ancient Stoics very well and tries to adapt their thought to the modern world. To this end, he places the emphasis on ethics, since the remaining parts of the system (logic and physics) are difficult to transpose to the present day. The return of Stoicism was later stimulated by the pandemic episode that began in 2020. Today everything bearing the word ‘Stoic’ arouses considerable interest among broad sectors of the population. But what is the reason, or reasons, for this extraordinary renaissance?

Bust of Marcus Aurelius, Glyptothek

What do we call Stoicism today?

This is a complicated question to answer. To do so we must distinguish at least two levels of discourse. On the one hand we have a more theoretical Stoicism, recovered by scholars who know well the principles of this school and its contribution in antiquity. Thus, for Becker, Stoicism consists of a series of ethical principles that can point out to us paths for living in a way more in accordance with our nature. Understanding what it means to live in accordance with nature is a core theme in Stoicism and constitutes the key to Becker’s book.

The mastery of our impulses, what William B. Irvine, another scholar who promotes Stoic values, considers "our evolutionary master," is the foundation of the control of our desires. For this American philosopher, who develops these questions in On Desire or in A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy, the greatest benefit of Stoicism today consists in the revaluation and revitalization of rationality in the face of emotional impulses that take on an ever more leading role. Only with the virtues of an animus magnus, as Cicero said, that is, with fortitude sustained by constancy, can the new Stoic take possession of his emotions and master them.

In general, this more theoretical Stoicism rescues from the ancient one almost all of its ethical values. Some have generated a certain controversy, since, in principle, they make up an ethics that grates with the spirit of our time. For example: both Becker and Irvine, but also other promoters of this movement such as Sellars, Gill or Pigliucci, maintain that the control of desires must be grounded in the acceptance of things as they are and not as we would wish them to be. This is a conclusion consistent with the Stoic principle known as the "dichotomy of control," which requires us to distinguish those aspects of our lives that we can change because they ultimately depend on us and those others which, however, prove unalterable because they are not under our control. This doctrine, already held by the ancient Stoics, has been subjected to a strong critique for its supposedly conservative character. Later on I will refer to it in greater detail.

Another of the elements common to the neo-Stoic authors is the recovery for ethics of the concept of virtue, abandoned by the great majority of modern philosophies, but essential for understanding the ethics of antiquity. According to this doctrine, the ultimate end of the human being...