re, I think, a good comparison c

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There, I think, a good comparison can be made between Stoicism and Christianity. So Id rather retire outside of Rome in my own villa. He used some of his great wealth to try to bribe Nero to let him retire, offering two thirds of his lands to the emperor. Buddha allegedly achieved enlightenment in his lifetime. Then I went beyond Aristotle and read what little there is available on Epicureanism and some of the other Hellenistic schools of virtue ethics. So the intelligent Stoic would react with humour or simply just ignore the insult, but then he or she would go back and think:Why did my colleague object to that paper? It is the private thoughts of the worlds, giving advice to himself on how to make good on the responsibilities and obligations of his positions. The Meditations consists of twelve short books. var s = d.createElement(t); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.async = 'true'; Am I right that many of the Stoics grounded their ethics on metaphysics, so the metaphysics actually shaped the ethics? Epictetus, by the end of his life took a wife of about his own age, apparently so she could help him raise a child fathered by a friend of Epictetus. You would hope that somebody would think its time to do something about this. So he says: My dear Lucilius, you might wonder why am I quoting our competitor; his answer in Latin is quod verum est meum est which means that which is true is mine. Youve also published a couple of books that deal with Stoic themes. If you read them through you will see that theres a lot of redundancy there. So do most of our analyses of what were doing in life. The dichotomy of control is crucial in Stoicism, particularly to Epictetus philosophy. When I began reading Stoic works I started making furious notes and highlighting things and then going back to quotations one after another. Theyre written to his friend Lucilius, who was probably a real person living in Sicily at the time. Whenever I need a break, like after our conversation today, Ill just go down and walk by the Forum. Seneca famously said that we die every day of our life, by which he meant that our entire life is a preparation for the ultimate test: how you handle death. There are two recent biographies of Seneca that take that kind of attitude towards the man. I know, right. Yet the first book of the Meditations opens with a long list of people whom he thanks. Eventually I said to myself, you know, maybe its time to take a second look at Stoicism and see what it is that these people are actually doing. The same can be said about Epictetus Enchiridion incidentally, though Epictetus is far less well known than Marcus. Nero refused and tried to keep Seneca in his entourage.

Yes. Most people throughout most of history didnt have hot showers, didnt have hot baths. If you read Cicero, and if you read Epictetus himself, it becomes clear that many Stoics did believe that they had the best way, if not the only way, certainly the best way of achieving eudaimonia. Then I heard about an event that takes place in the UK called Stoic Week; I remembered Stoicism from studying it in high school. But then if you bear in mind that it is the most powerful person in the world writing this, and in his own personal diarynot done for show to other peoplehe starts out by thanking people who had made a good impact on his own life: its a very humbling exercise. For more recommendations (books, blogs, articles), sign up for. (function(d, t) { You can find reactions to Stoicism in all the major Christian Church fathers beginning with Augustine, too, and then all the way to Thomas Aquinas. This is referred to as the ancient philosophy diaspora: the philosophers from different schools went out into different places.

The idea is that Stoicism is now 23 centuries old, and that just like modern Christians or Buddhists are not sticking necessarily to the original version of their philosophies, so Stoics need to update things for the 21st century, taking into account the progress incurred in the meantime by both science and philosophy. Seneca calls it a temporary madness. The philosophers left. So he says we do certain things, or this is something that happened to us. There is an anecdote in the Discourses where somebody, one of his students, tells him: I heard so-and-so speaking ill of you.And Epictetus response is: Well, thats because he doesnt know me well, because otherwise he would be saying much, much worse things.. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount. Often people say that the Meditations come across as preachyand thats true to some extentbut they forget that he is preaching to himself. Im so glad you brought that up because indignation at injustice, a sense of injustice, those are positive emotions. What are they, and how would you describe your books? The way youve described Marcus Aurelius, hes trying to tell himself that hes not going to be bothered by these people, but you sense, reading between the lines, that he probably will be. Now I dont know exactly how much money we are talking about, but it would have been a substantial offer. I may be doing virtue theory an injustice here, but I havent been aware of an increase in the number of virtuous people as a result of this philosophical study, but there are definitely people behaving stoically now. Now we can read those letters and they can guide us through problems with grief, wealth, poverty, success, failure, education and so many other things. Check out all the bonuses or sign up below. That is, as you say, a caricature of Stoicism; but its a very common one, and its not going to go away anytime soon. This is a more academic book than your other choices.

. I can see why Epictetus is so attractive. All of these therapies bear traces of Stoicism. Seneca meant that every day that passes brings us one step closer to the end of our lives. Someone should do a sociology thesis on this! No they went of their own accord. Exactly. He lived in Nicopolis to a ripe age of 80, which for the time was remarkable. Then theres: On the terrors of death. Death was a constant Stoic theme. Read it, it is practical philosophy embodied.

Think about it this way. I think what youre getting at there is this separation between academic philosophy and practical philosophy. One of the reasons Stoicism came back in modern times is because these tricks are useful. We know that Seneca wrote them late in life, during the last two or three years before he was invited to commit suicide by Nero after he had fallen out of favour with the emperor. Its not obvious that theres a school of neo-Aristotelian people practically trying to be more virtuous. Well, it is in this sense. The very first book that I read after this renewed interest in Stoicism was The Discourses of Epictetus. Then there is an essay on old age, for instance, on how to age gracefully and deal with it if youre lucky enough to live to experience that. For the Stoics, in contrast, they have a similar figure, a role model to whom they aspire and they call him the sage. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting.

People like Larry Baker and James Stockdale are obviously fascinating because they show you just how much a human being can actually deal with. A lot of people, not just Seneca, wrote letters that were meant both as personal letters to friends or acquaintances, but also for broader circulation. Is that almost an injunction not to get het up about metaphysical questions at the expense of living well? Its interesting because it guides you on how to live your life from a Stoic perspective. One of the things that I have done while here was to visit the Domus Aurea. Exactly. His answer, of course, is yes, and I tend to agree. In the early letters, over and over he ends with what he calls a gift for Lucilius, and its always a quotation from somebody else, a quotation from Epicurus, or whoever. That would be pushing it. P.S. In addition to the books he has written on Stoicism, he is one of the organisers of Stoicon, an annual meeting of people interested in exploring Stoicism as a philosophy of life. He presents Stoicism in good light. Exactly, and in fact that is the title of one of the two recent biographies I mentioned of Seneca: Dying Every Day. Is there some truth perhaps in what hes saying? Epictetus was brought to Rome, and for a while lived at Neros court. When I met him I did a long interview with him which is available on my website, and we discussed his experience in life and how it related to his Stoicism. This is a recent thing, a20th century phenomenon. Its a hands-on book, meant to be written on, and the exercises are grouped according to the three disciplines of the second century Stoic Epictetus: desire (i.e., how to reorient our priorities), action (i.e., how to deal with other people), and assent (i.e., how to improve our judgment). But Christians did learn from Stoicismnot only from Epictetus Enchiridion but also Saint Paul knew Senecas brother, Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus, and so was aware of Stoic writing. You cannot read this book and not come away with a phrase or a line that will be helpful to you next time you are in trouble. Cicero was not a Stoic; rather he was a Platonic and academic sceptic. Trained in stoic philosophy, Marcus stopped almost every night to practice. It thrived in Athens until the Athenians made what turned out to be a fundamental political mistake siding with Mithridates against the Romans. If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what youre needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person..

Thats right, it depends on how you look at it, on your attitude. In fact, he explicitly told his students that whatever the nature of the world turns out to be doesnt make any difference to human life. Seneca was a stoic as well, but like Marcus, he was practical and borrowed liberally from other schools. We know what these people did, and how they practised their philosophies. It is right in front of the Colosseum, but its several metres below ground. A Field Guide to a Happy Life: 53 Brief Lessons for Living (UK title: The Stoic Guide to a Happy Life), A Handbook for New Stoics: How to Thrive in a World Out of Your Control 52 Week-by-Week Lessons, How to Live a Good Life: A Guide to Choosing Your Personal Philosophy, How To Be A Stoic: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Living, Making Sense of Evolution: The Conceptual Foundations of Evolutionary Biology, Tales of the Rational : Skeptical Essays About Nature and Science, The Best Historical Fiction: The 2022 Walter Scott Prize Shortlist, The Best Recent Novels from Francophone Africa, Modern Stoicism blog on the University of Exeter site. If the universe is made up of atoms, or its made up of something else, those are interesting questions but theyre not going to affect your life. Learn more about the meaning behind Daily Stoic's most popular medallion. As a result of that the Roman general Sulla marched on Athens and laid siege to the city, destroying both Mithridates and many of the Greeks. Larry Baker and James Stockdale are showjust how much a human being can actually deal with.

Seneca and the other Stoics are very careful to remind you that you dont do these things in order to punish yourself, something that, again, some of the late medieval Christians actually did. Just like it did back in Athens around 300 BCE, when Zeno of Citium got things started. Thats an interesting question.

He has a very wicked sense of humour, a very interesting sense of humour. Well, it turns out Larry was hit by polio when he was young, and this crippled him, and for three years he was in rehabilitation. The starting point of any new pursuit is critical. The Stoics also had fictional role models, ancient heroes and demigods like Hercules.

s.onload = s.onreadystatechange = function() { Their idea was that in order to figure out how to live your life, you needed to understand how the universe works and what your place in it wasthat would be the physicsand you also needed to understand how human beings reason and fail to reason well; thats where the logic came in. Most contemporary ethics is focused on answering narrower questions such as: Is this action right or wrong? and: Under what circumstances is this permissible or not permissible?, For the ancients, ethics was the study of how to live a good life. Throughout the Renaissance, for example, Seneca was thought of as close to being a secular saint. Its quite a difficult book to read in some ways; if you dont have a certain amount of background in philosophy, youre probably not going to get as much out of it as you should, although Becker himself is aware of this. Now, that comes with a caveat, because whenever I tell this kind of story, the objection is: Ah, but that way you run the risk of not actually learning from criticism. Third, for all the negative comments we can rattle out about social media, they are making it much easier to discover new ideas and especially to share them with others. Are there any new books about Stoicism that stand out for you as particularly interesting? For many centuries there was no school of Stoicism, no practice, there was no theory going on. You can visit now, but you have to make an appointment, and there is a nice guide from the Ministry of Cultural Goods, who walks you through for an hour or so. Why am I reacting this way? The aim was to examine your emotion and to manage or gradually eliminate the negative, destructive ones. Its not that you cant influence the things not under your control, of course you can. Seneca eventually managed to achieve a sort of semi-retirement anyway. Unsubscribe at any time. Then there is William Irvines The Stoic Challenge, which uses a crucial tool in Stoicism what modern psychologists call the framing effect to change the way we think about setbacks. Im talking to you from Rome where Im on my sabbatical, and Im writing a book on how to be a Stoic, which willbe published next year by Basic Books. Then, eventually, he recovered the use of his legs to some extent, though never his arms or hands; and then for several years he has been living in a wheelchair. The Moral Epistles is in some ways Senecas philosophical testament because it conveys his mature thought. These are some of the most readable, relatable and powerful works from human history. img_width: 120, img_height: 120, title: true, price: false, facebook: false, free_clicks: false, },

Stoics are clear that there havent been many sages throughout history, but there have been some, and they point to some examples, the obvious one being Socrates, who was not a Stoic because he pre-dated the school. So where should someone. On top of that he was immensely wealthy. At a certain point he felt like he had to justify doing this. Theres nothing like self-flagellation in Stoicism. It was during those years that Nero became unhinged: he killed his mother, several of his wives, and his stepbrother. So that puts the emphasis on the virtues. You shouldnt go around with either a metaphorical or an actual stick beating people and saying, youre not virtuous enough.. Its over four years since I interviewed you about Stoicism, and there have been quite a few new books published on this topic since then. Seneca is often criticised, even by modern Stoics, as a somewhat ambiguous figure because despite being a self-professed Stoic he was preaching virtue at the same time that he oversaw Neros first five years in power. In the meantime, several political events happened in Rome: there was one emperor after another.

Every year, the Walter Scott Prize highlights the best new historical novels. Designed to help you cultivate strength, insight, and wisdom to live your best life. Second, Stoicism originated and became popular back during the Hellenistic period at a time of turmoil, where society was changing in dramatic ways, and people felt they had no control over what was happening. In contrast, in the Letters to Lucilius, Seneca recognised that good ideas for living can come from diverse sources. We have excellent accounts of the lives of ancient Stoics: we know a lot about the Greek Stoics, beginning from Zeno, the founder of the philosophy, through Diogenes Laertius Lives of the Philosophers, which includes several mini-biographies of Stoics; and of course we also know a lot about Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Musonius Rufus, and others too. The ancients had a much broader conception of ethics. On many occasions he expresses something so clearly and profoundly that it will shake you to your core. But they were written to be published, werent they? The reason its called A New Stoicismis because unlike, for example, the Buddhist tradition, or even the Christian tradition, Stoicism was interrupted by the fall of the Roman Empire. Is it really philosophy any more at that point? Of those eight books, unfortunately only four remain. Now, after that event, we are talking about 1st century BCE here, there was no relevant school of philosophy left in Athens. Personally, I prefer the Penguin translations, but Ive tried a handful of others and found the differences to be relatively negligible. The following year, the same thing happened, and in the meantime of course I kept reading about virtue ethics. What can I learn from that reaction?, Epictetus is very specific about this, that you should do this, that you should analyse the problem with a calm eye; but what you shouldnt do is react to the insult, because reacting to an insult is something that is under your control. Even if you have anger and indignation at injustice? The other four got lost somewhere during the Middle Ages. We publish at least two new interviews per week. The first group organizes the annual Stoic Week and Stoicon events, and has been fostering a number of local, smaller Stoicon-X gatherings; the second one has the goal of helping people create local Stoas, connecting in person, as much as it is currently possible because of Covid, of course. And speaking of Epictetus, my newest book is coming out in the UK on 9/17, with the title The Stoic Guide to a Happy Life (American title: A Field Guide to a Happy Life), and it is a complete rewrite of one of ancient Stoicisms most important texts, Epictetuss Enchiridion (or Manual). The later Stoics, such as Epictetus, based in Rome, added a second component to this. Funny you should say so. We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview. If in fact one of these days, as a result of externalities or adversity, you really do find yourself starving, you will be psychologically prepared. He wrote the definitive account of Alexander the Greats expedition. Ive read an account by James Stockdale who survived torture and solitary confinement during the Vietnam War after his plane was shot down without breaking down through Stoic techniques, based on his memories of having studied Epictetus. Its not something that everybody can dothe fact that he as a man achieved enlightenment, however, shows that it is achievable.

Becker had a dedication to his students and to his career and didnt allow his physical problems to stand in his way. He would have been much worse without Senecas advice. This was a time in ancient Rome where philosophy was all over the place: Stoicism had to compete with Epicureanism, with Cynicism, with the Platonic Academy, with the Peripatetics, followers of Aristotle, and so on. She said that if you examine the historical records, Seneca did a good job in the first five years of Neros reign.

Exactly. But what about this caricature of Stoicism that the way you achieve independence from the contingencies of life is by somehow extirpating your emotions? So I did this, and the woman that was leading the excursion of course talked a lot about Nero, and she also talked a lot about Seneca. Is there really something to be afraid of, or not? If there is something to be afraid of, a real danger, by all means deal with the danger; but a lot of the time the first impression is actually misleading. Epictetus was focused on ethics, which is the third Stoic concern. It was really amazing. He said: Oh, well thats because you only read one of my papers: if youd read the other ones youd see that Im really evil. So he turned things around; thats exactly what Epictetus did. There are so many topics that Seneca covers. Ellis and Frankl both read the Stoics, and used their ideas as a starting point. There is nothing in any of these biographies or in any of their writings that suggests that they behaved in a Spock-like way and suppressed their emotions in order to think about things rationally.