(Philosophy) The Stoic: ‘The Straitjacketed Soul’

AWARENESS

“The diseases of the rational soul are long-standing and hardened vices, such as greed and ambition – they have put the soul in a straitjacket and have begun to be permanent evils inside it. To put it briefly, this sickness is an unrelenting distortion of judgment, so that things that are only mildly desirable are vigorously sought after.” – Seneca, Moral Letters, 75.11

IN the financial crisis and disaster of the late 2000s, hundreds of smart, rational people lost trillions worth of wealth. How could such smart people have been so foolish? These people knew the system, knew how the markets were supposed to work, and had managed billions, if not trillions of dollars and other foreign currencies. And yet, almost to a person, they were wrong – and wrong to the tune of global market havoc.

It’s not hard to look at that situation and understand that greed was some part of the problem. Greed what was led people to create complex markets that no one understood in the hope of making a quick buck. Greed caused other people to make trades on strange pools of debt. Greed prevented anyone from calling out this situation for what it was – a house of cards just waiting for the slightest breeze to knock it all down.

It doesn’t do you much good to criticise those folks after the fact. It’s better to look at how greed and vices might be having a similar effect in your own life. What lapses in judgment might your vices be causing you? What “sickness” might you have?

And, how can your rational mind step in and regulate them?
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Arts, Literature, Philosophy

The Stoic: There is Philosophy in Everything

AWARENESS

“Eat like a human being, drink like a human being, dress up, marry, have children, get politically active – suffer abuse, bear with a headstrong brother, father, son, neighbour, or companion. Show us these things so we can see that you truly have learned from the philosophers.” – Epictetus, Discourses, 3.21.5–6

PLUTARCH, a Roman biographer as well as an admirer of the Stoics, didn’t begin his study of the greats of Roman literature until late in life. But, as he recounts in his biography of Demosthenes, he was surprised at how quickly it all came to him. He wrote, “It wasn’t so much that the words brought me into a full understanding of events, as that, somehow, I had a personal experience of the events that allowed me to follow closely the meaning of the words.”

This is what Epictetus means about the study of philosophy. Study, yes, but go and live your life as well. It’s the only way that you’ll actually understand what any of it means. And more important, it’s only from your actions and choices over time that it will be possible to see whether you took any of the teachings to heart.

Be aware of that today when you’re going about your daily business, deciding whom to vote for, waving to your neighbour as you walk to your door, tipping the delivery man, saying goodnight to someone you love. All of that is philosophy. All of it is experience that brings meaning to the words.

. You might also like The Stoic: The Power of a Mantra

Arts, Literature, Philosophy, Poetry

The Stoic: ‘Steady’ or ‘Unsteady’

CLARITY

THIS article incorporates a poem dedicated by my friend Jan Smith from Liverpool. You will find the poem, entitled “Be Kind”, roughly at the mid-point of this entry. I thank Jan for allowing me to use and share her work on my site. She can be found on Twitter: @JanSmithNL

IF YOU WANT TO BE STEADY

“The essence of good is a certain kind of reasoned choice; just as the essence of evil is another kind. What about externals, then? They are only the raw material for our reasoned choice, which finds its own good or evil in working with them. How will it find the good? Not by marveling at the material! For if judgments about the material that are straight makes our choices good, but if those judgments are twisted, our choices turn bad.” – Epictetus, Discourses, 1.29.1–3

THE Stoics seek steadiness, stability, and tranquility – traits most of us aspire to but seem to experience only fleetingly. How do they accomplish this elusive goal? How does one embody eustatheia (the word Arrian once used to describe this teaching of Epictetus)?

Well, it’s not luck. It’s not by eliminating outside influences or running away to quiet and solitude. Instead, it’s about filtering the outside world through the straightener of our judgment. That’s what our reason can do – it can take the crooked, confusing, and overwhelming nature of external events and make them orderly.

However, if our judgments are crooked because we don’t apply reason, then everything that follows will be crooked, and we will lose our ability to steady ourselves in the chaos and rush of life. If you want to be steady, if you want clarity, proper judgment is the best way.

IF YOU WANT TO BE UNSTEADY

“For if a person shifts their caution to their own reasoned choices and the acts of those choices, they will at the same time gain the will to avoid, but if they shift their caution away from their own reasoned choices to things not under their control, seeking to avoid what is controlled by others, they will then be agitated, fearful, and unstable.” – Epictetus, Discourses, 2.1.12

THE image of the Zen philosopher is the monk up in the green, quiet hills, or in a beautiful temple on some rocky cliff. The Stoics are the antithesis of this idea. Instead, they are the man in the marketplace, the senator in the Forum, the brave wife waiting for her soldier to return from battle, the sculptor busy in her studio. Still, the Stoic is equally at peace.

Epictetus is reminding you that serenity and stability are results of your choices and judgment, not your environment. If you seek to avoid all disruptions to tranquility – other people, external events, stress – you will never be successful. Your problems will follow you wherever you run and hide. But if you seek to avoid the harmful and disruptive judgments that cause those problems, then you will be stable and steady whatever and wherever you happen to be.

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