A lot of people these days are pleasure-seekers. They organize life around obtaining the most satisfying experiences possible of food, drink, travel, and leisure. We even hope to find our work satisfying so that doing our jobs feels like play. Sometimes, this is tied up with implicit competition with online friends: Whoever can post photos depicting the most pleasurable experiences wins the game.

One of the things that's interesting and valuable about philosophy is that it challenges us to entertain different viewpoints. This includes unconventional ones that we wouldn't otherwise even have dreamt of. In doing this, philosophy challenges us to become more self-aware by understanding the reasons why we do what we do.

Thinking philosophically, it is natural to ask: What alternative viewpoints are there to the one according to which life should be lived in pursuit of pleasure?

In the service of living a life of virtue, Stoic philosophers like Marcus Aurelius exemplified a willingness to shun worldly comforts.

Aurelius wasn't just a........

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