Author: William C. Spears
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Moving to Substack
Folks, just a quick note to inform that I’m moving this blog to Substack, here: https://williamcspears.substack.com/ It’s just got a better platform for what I really want to do, which is to continue developing ideas about Stoicism and military service. This blog is now shut down, but the homepage will stay here.
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The Greg Sadler Review
Just like I don’t write a separate post for every interview I do on the book tour, I also don’t do one every time someone reviews my book. On the other hand, Dr. Sadler is different in that a) he’s a professional expert on my topic and b) he did both. Dr. Gregory Sadler, PhD…
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The Philosopher’s Compass interview
I don’t typically write separate posts for podcast appearances. The book-promotion circuit involves a lot of thoughtful conversations with generous hosts, and if I tried to recap every one of them, this blog would become a running media log. But this conversation merits a specific callout. I had the privilege of joining Meredith Alexander Kunz…
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Video: The Stoic Knife
For anyone wondering why there’s a giant knife on the cover of my book: At 17 minutes, it’s pretty short, but this presentation I recently did for the Modern Stoicism organization pretty much covers it.
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Book Review: Honor in Political and Moral Philosophy
When I began my Navy career as an enlisted nuke electrician, I was relentlessly beaten over the head with the importance of “integrity.” What is integrity? Ask any group of sailors, and they will tell you it is “doing the right thing, even when nobody is looking.” A few years later, as a midshipman at…
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Be Like the Purple Thread
Epictetus, Discourses 1.2: …that’s why, when Florus was considering whether he should attend Nero’s show to perform some part in it himself, Agrippinus said to him, “Go!” And when Florus asked him, “then why aren’t you going yourself?” he replied, “Because I’ve never even considered it. For as soon as anyone begins to consider such…
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Two Books for Navalists
Around the new year, it’s common to post a photo of an impressive stack of books—a public signal of ambition or discipline. I want to do something different: highlight books that work especially well together when they’re closely studied. For anyone serious about naval thinking, Seapower by Geoffrey Till and Fleet Tactics by Wayne Hughes…
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At the Hall of Heroes
Yesterday I was privileged to meet– for the first time in person– Dr. Jim Stockdale II, who graciously wrote the foreword to my book last year. Jim and I have exchanged much correspondence over the past year and have spoken more than a few times, to the point that I feel safe calling him a…
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Audiobook Released
Who is this handsome devil Stephen Caffrey? You might know him as Lt. Myron Goldman from the 1987 Vietnam drama Tour of Duty, and other fine cinema. I know him as the professional voice actor selected by the publisher to read the audiobook of Stoicism as a Warrior Philosophy, which released today. Let me tell…
William C. Spears 