Reading list

Living According to Nature

The Stoics and the American Transcendentalists on reason, nature and the self-examined life.

Beginning. 7 steps

The Stoics

Tradition
Stoicism
The school’s physics of divine reason and its ethics of agreement with nature.
Text
The Discourses of Epictetus
Epictetus, tr. George Long, 1877
Begin with the Handbook, then read the first book of the Discourses.
Text
The Thoughts of the Emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus
Marcus Aurelius, tr. George Long, 1862
An emperor’s private exercises in seeing all things as one living whole.
Concept
Logos
The reason that orders the cosmos, and its long life in later thought.

Tradition
Transcendentalism
New England’s rediscovery of the divine in nature and in the soul.
Text
Essays
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841
Read “Self-Reliance” and “The Over-Soul” together, as two sides of one teaching.
Text
Walden
Henry David Thoreau, 1854
Thoreau’s experiment in simplicity; begin with the chapter on where he lived.

Cite this entry

Chicago (bibliography): “Living According to Nature.” Reading list. The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society. Last modified November 7, 2026. https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/living-according-to-nature.
Chicago (note): “Living According to Nature,” reading list, The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, last modified November 7, 2026, https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/living-according-to-nature.
MLA: “Living According to Nature.” The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, 7 Nov. 2026, www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/living-according-to-nature.
BibTeX: @misc{reading-lists-living-according-to-nature, title = {{Living According to Nature}}, howpublished = {The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society}, note = {Reading list. Last modified November 7, 2026}, year = {2026}, url = {https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/living-according-to-nature} }