New Online Course Coming Up!

a 5-week course leading you through ancient philosophical approaches to anger

Most of the online classes I offer for the general public can be found in the Study With Sadler academy. But I’ve got one starting relatively soon - March 9 - that is hosted somewhere else. It’s called Understanding Anger: Ancient Western Philosophical Perspectives, and it is being hosted in the American Philosophical Practitioners Association online academy. Here’s the page where you can register for the class.

What We Will Be Doing In The Course

We will be meeting by Zoom for 5 weekly sessions, each going for roughly 2 hours, scheduled from 12:00-2:00 PM Central Time on Sundays. The sessions start March 9 and finish on April 6.

Each week, we will be examining one main philosophical school or movement in antiquity, looking at:

• their overall approach to the emotion of anger

• insights they have about what makes people get angry

• how they evaluate anger from ethical perspectives

• useful distinctions they make between anger and other emotions

• applicable practices for dealing with, directing, or lessening anger

I will be “lecturing,” which in my case means that I will have a set of notes worked up, and I’ll be leading participants through the texts, highlighting aspects and ideas, and engaging participants in discussion. My classes always include a number of examples, some of which will be taken from the class readings, others from our contemporary life, and some made up on the spot. We set aside time for Q&A and discussion at multiple points in each class session.

Participants will be supplied with lists of readings for each week of the class. Nearly all of the readings can easily be found in English translation within in the public domain. I will also be providing students with handouts that I have developed over the years as I researched and taught these topics.

All of the sessions will be recorded, so participants can go back over them later if they would like to.

Who This Class Is For

The American Philosophical Practitioners Association is a professional organization that, among other things, trains and certifies what are called philosophical counselors or practitioners. These are people, like myself, who apply concepts and practices drawn from philosophy with clients to help them understand and deal with various problems in their lives.

One area that philosophical counselors often find themselves having to work with their clients on is anger management. This happens to be an area of specialization for me, both as a philosophical counselor and as an academic philosopher. So for philosophical counselors or practitioners who would like to improve their knowledge base about the resources ancient philosophers offer for dealing with anger, this could be a useful course to take.

A deep dive into ancient treatments of anger could also be of interest to those who work professionally in fields that inevitably deal with the emotions such as philosophy, psychology, management, or the like.

What about non-professionals who are just interested in the topics we will cover? Or people who find themselves struggling with anger on their own part or on that of others? This class will be a learning opportunity full of ideas and practices that can be applied for improving one’s life and relationships. You don’t need to have a professional or academic background. One of my talents is taking complex ideas from philosophical texts and thinkers and making them accessible for learners from all walks of life.

Really, all you need in order to be a suitable student for this class is an interest in the topics, a willingness to show up and engage the topics, and a view that enrolling in the class is worth the inexpensive tuition.

The Schedule For The Class

Here’s the schedule we will be following during the course, including the readings for each week. (I may also suggest and reference a few supplementary readings as well)

Week 1: Sunday, March 9 Platonic Perspectives and Practices
Readings:
— Plato, short selections from Euthyphro, Gorgias, Protagoras, and Republic book 4
— Plutarch, On Controlling Anger

Week 2: Sunday, March 16, 2025 Aristotelian Perspectives and Practices
Readings:
— Aristotle, short selections from Nicomachean Ethics books 2, 4, & 7, and Rhetoric book 2

Week 3: Sunday, March 23, 2025 Epicurean Perspectives and Practices
Readings:
— Epicurus, short selections from Principal Doctrines, Vatican Sayings, and Letter to Menoecius
— Lucretius, short selections from On The Nature of Things
— Philodemus, On Anger

Week 4: Sunday, March 30, 2025 Stoic Perspectives and Practices
Readings:
— Seneca, selections from On Anger
— Epictetus, short selections from Discourses
— Marcus Aurelius short selections from Meditations

Week 5: Sunday, April 6, 2025 Early Christian Perspectives and Practices
Readings:
— John Chrysostom, short selections from Homilies
— John Cassian, Institutes book 8
— Augustine of Hippo, Letter 38, short selections from Commentaries and Sermons

A Final Note

As I mentioned above, philosophical approaches to anger, both in theory and in application is an area of my specialized research and practice. I first became interested in these matters in a serious way back in graduate school when I was both struggling with my own anger problems and I started discovering resources for dealing with those in Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics. Anger is a complicated and troublesome emotion, and I have experienced both for myself and in others, how useful already developed theories of anger can be for dealing with it.

I have written and published a lot in both academic and popular forums about anger and related topics, produced hundreds of videos on the matter, and given dozens of talks, interviews, and workshops on it. Two that you might find particularly relevant, if you’re considering this class, but sitting on the fence at the moment are these:

Here’s the recording of my presentation at the APPA annual conference.

That presentation was then expanded into an article, published in the journal Philosophical Practice, which you can find and download a copy of here.

In the actual course, we’ll be going considerably deeper into the philosophical traditions than I did in the presentation or article, but they’ll give you a taste of what sorts of matters we’ll be engaging with.

I hope you’ll consider enrolling in the course! If you’re interested, here is the link to take you to the APPA course page.