Why is the stoic's ethical philosophy not practicable today?

Question

If you think it is, why is nobody following it?

> Some people try to follow it, but it is considered outdated.

Ohhhh, Really? :P

My question is why?

Answer 1

Some people try to follow it, but it is considered outdated.

Answer 2

I think stoicism IS widely practiced today... but I also think that many of its practitioners don't know that they're stoics. This is because the principles of stoicism are actually quite simple; some would say that they have been integrated into many, many other movements so that even if someone doesn't follow Epictetus or Zeno specifically, they are still profiting from their work.

Simply stated, a stoic believes in:
- reason over passion... to be human is to experience emotions, but the best life is had not by acting on them without thought. I like to summarize this by saying, "emotions are an excellent compass, but a very poor map".
- learning provides reason the tools it needs, so try to learn from everything and about everything.
- indifference to suffering by understanding control... a stoic knows that he can't control everything in the universe. The best he can do is to control his own behaviour. To worry about anything else is pointless.

Now, I'll agree that most people have trouble accepting that rain isn't a personal attack on them so they can't have a picnic. I don't think there was EVER a time when stoicism was a dominating societal force.

But consider how many religions teach that 'everything happens for a reason' (Epictetus was a big fan of this idea) and that you should therefore learn from even bad things (point 2) and not get upset at them (point 3). Nor is the enshrinement of reason as a dominating force uncommon either, though it is doubtlessly more common in universities than other places.

A lot of people misunderstand what stoicism was about. They see it as enduring pain rather than learning from it and avoiding it. And to be fair, reason takes work, and many people are not inclined to work more than they have to. Still, I think stoicism is a LONG way from being 'not practicable', 'not followed', or even 'not popular'... even if it is covertly so.

Link 2 is a lecture on stoicism commonly given by Vice Admiral Stockdale to the military; given that he was president of the Naval War College for a time, I imagine quite a few soldiers came to hear it. He himself was a very outspoken fan of stoicism. So that's at least one major modern 'celebrity' stoic for you.

Answer 3

i think it is,
i try to follow it