In this episode, Eddie and Aneesh contemplate the life experiences of Admiral James Stockdale. Known as the 'Philosophical Fighter Pilot,' his trials and triumphs as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War inspired the creation of a highly sought-after and esteemed course on philosophical leadership - The Foundations of Moral Obligation (also known as 'the Stockdale Course').
You can read his essay, 'Courage Under Fire' here:
StockdaleCourage.pdf (hoover.org)
The Foundations of Moral Obligation reading list:
Plato: Euthyphro, Apology, & Crito
Plato: Republic
Aristotle: Nichomachean Ethics
Kant: On Enlightenment
John Stuart Mill: On Liberty
Thucydides: Melian Dialogue
Charter of the United Nations
Kant: Perpetual Peace
Tolstoy: Death of Ivan Ilych
Elie Weisel: Night
Epicurus: Letter to Meneoceus
The Bhagavad Gita
Dostoyevsky: The Grand Inquisitor
Neitzsche: Thus Spake Zarathustra
Albert Camus: The Myth of Sisyphus