Everything IFS Blog

A free course by Everything IFS Academy on René Descartes, the father of modern philosophy: the French philosopher, mathematician, and soldier whose mission began with three dreams in a stove-heated room. Across 9 modules, explore his life and world, the method of doubt, cogito ergo sum, clear and distinct ideas, his proofs for the existence of God, the Cartesian circle, mind-body dualism, and an honest telling of both the genius and the blind spots.

A free course by Everything IFS Academy on Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism: the Phoenician merchant who lost his fortune in a shipwreck, wandered into an Athenian bookshop, and built a school on the Painted Porch. Across 10 modules, explore his three-part system of logic, physics, and ethics, living in agreement with nature, virtue as the only good, the cataleptic impression, God and the designing fire, the passions and apatheia, and his lost, radical Republic.

A free course by Everything IFS Academy on the Stoic philosopher Seneca: Roman statesman, playwright, advisor to Nero, exile, and one of history's most famous deaths. Across 9 modules, explore his life and world, the Letters to Lucilius, On the Shortness of Life, his treatise On Anger, why we suffer more in imagination than in reality, premeditatio malorum, the Consolations, and an honest account of both his brilliance and his contradictions.

A free course by Everything IFS Academy on the Stoic philosopher Gaius Musonius Rufus: the Roman Socrates who taught Epictetus and survived repeated exile under Rome's emperors. Across 10 modules, explore his life and world, askesis as training of soul and body, his radical case that women too should study philosophy, simple living in food and clothing, why exile is not an evil, his teachings on marriage, sex, and family, and philosophy as daily practice in every walk of life

A free course by Everything IFS Academy on Marcus Aurelius: meet the Roman emperor who ruled through war, plague, and betrayal while writing the private notes that became the Meditations. Across 11 modules, explore the discipline of perception, the inner citadel, the view from above, memento mori, sympatheia, the interconnection of all things, what the obstacle is the way really meant, and which famous quotes he actually wrote.

A free course by Everything IFS Academy on Hierocles: meet the near-forgotten Roman Stoic recovered from a papyrus buried at Hermopolis and the excerpts preserved by Stobaeus. Across 6 modules, explore oikeiosis, the self-appropriation that grounds all Stoic ethics, the famous circles of concern running from self to all humanity, the appropriate acts, his duties toward gods, parents, kin, and marriage, and the single lens they form.

A free course by Everything IFS Academy on Epictetus: meet the man born a slave in Hierapolis who became Rome's greatest teacher of inner freedom. Across 9 modules, explore the dichotomy of control, the Discourses and the Enchiridion recorded by his student Arrian, the teaching that it is not things that disturb us but our judgments, prohairesis, the faculty of choice, the three disciplines of desire, action, and assent, and role ethics.

A free course by Everything IFS Academy on Cleanthes of Assos: meet the boxer who arrived in Athens with four coins, hauled water by night to study under Zeno, and became the second head of the Stoic school. Across 7 modules, explore his Hymn to Zeus, the "Lead me, Zeus" prayer on providence and fate, tonos, the tension that holds the world together, virtue as the strength of the soul, and the devotion that carried Stoicism to Chrysippus.

A free course by Everything IFS Academy on Chrysippus of Soli: meet the third head of the Stoic school, the Greek philosopher who wrote over seven hundred books and earned the title of second founder of Stoicism. Across 11 modules, explore his propositional logic and the lekton, the five indemonstrables, Stoic physics of pneuma and a living cosmos, the cylinder argument on fate and freedom, his theory of the passions, and the ideal of the Stoic sage.

A free IFS Academy course on the complete philosophy of David Hume: the copy principle, Hume's fork, the problem of induction, the bundle theory of the self, the is-ought problem, moral sentimentalism, Of Miracles, and the critique of the design argument. Every lesson ends with an IFS and parts work integration practice so you can begin working with the ideas, not just reading about them.

A free course by Everything IFS Academy on Confucius: meet Kongzi, Master Kong, the wandering teacher of ancient China who lived from 551 to 479 BCE and shaped Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese life for over two thousand years. Twelve plain English modules cover his life and world, the way of learning, ren, li, xiao, the junzi, the golden rule, the rectification of names, governing by virtue, Tian and the spirits, and carrying his wisdom into everyday life.