Table of Contents
What is the essence of stoicism?
The early Stoics often disagreed about many particulars, but they all agreed that for human beings the happy life was to be found only in the pursuit of virtue (arete, or human excellence), a pursuit that involved tempering our desires, aversions, and impulses so that they align better with the four cardinal virtues of …
What are the main teachings of stoicism?
With some exceptions (in the field of logic), Zeno thus provided the following themes as the essential framework of Stoic philosophy: logic as an instrument and not as an end in itself; human happiness as a product of life according to nature; physical theory as providing the means by which right actions are to be …
Is stoicism a good thing?
Stoicism type of philosophy is good if you are going through bad time, midlife crisis or in prison. If you are confined, alone and mentally tortured — stoicism brings mental toughness. Some of Stoicism is like common sense but very handy to soothe you if you are having a terrible time all the way in your life.
What is the core of stoicism?
Originating in Athens by a Phoenician merchant named Zeno of Citium in 301 BC the basic premise of Stoicism is that our behaviour, rather than words, determine happiness and judgments. Indeed, we don’t control external events, but we can control our mind and choose our response.
How do you explain Stoicism?
Stoicism is a school of philosophy that hails from ancient Greece and Rome in the early parts of the 3rd century, BC. It is a philosophy of life that maximizes positive emotions, reduces negative emotions and helps individuals to hone their virtues of character.
What is the most important virtue in stoicism?
Prudence is the most important and most general of the Stoic virtues because it refers, as here, to the firmly-grasped knowledge of what is good, bad, and indifferent in life. In other words, understanding the most important things in life or grasping the value of things rationally.
What is stoicism and why is it important?
“Stoicism teaches how to keep a calm and rational mind no matter what happens to you and it helps you understand and focus on what you can control and not worry about and accept what you can’t control.” This, of course, covers only a fraction of what Stoicism is all about.
What is the Stoic distinction between good and bad?
Here we find the classic Stoic distinction among things that are good, things that are bad, and things that are (morally) indifferent. The basic notion is that people always seek what they think is good for them. Of course they may be, and often are, mistaken about what that is, but that’s a different story.
What is the ideal stoic personality?
The Ideal Stoic Personality – The Stoic Sage. The Stoics actually had a hypothetical ideal, the Stoic Sage. In short, he’s a perfectly wise and good person. In long, hear out Donald Robertson describing the Sage: “The Sage is supremely virtuous, a perfect human being, and the closest mortal approximation to Zeus.
How should we evaluate the ethics of Stoics?
Since the Stoics stress the systematic nature of their philosophy, the ideal way to evaluate the Stoics’ distinctive ethical views would be to study them within the context of a full exposition of their philosophy. Here, however, we meet with the problem about the sources of our knowledge about Stoicism.