What is your opinion or philosophy of the Stoics/Stoic thought? Do you agree with this philosophy?

Answer 1

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; 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 only by considering actions with reason as well as emotion. I like to summarize this myself 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 through understanding... 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 things you can't control 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 some kind of macho pain endurance and denial, when a stoic - far from denying pain - would want to learn from it and avoid it in the future! 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 its popularity is largely covert.

Former Vice Admiral Stockdale gave many speeches advocating stoicism 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. So that's at least one major modern 'celebrity' stoic for you.

In case you can't tell, I think stoicism is peachy keen. Heh.

Answer 2

Stoicism shares much in common with Buddhism. There is an importance placed on accepting reality objectively. Where Buddhism stresses Karma, Stoicism stresses a similar concept; which the Romans called Virtue. And that is, doing good for the sake of doing good, not for the promise of reward or threat of punishment.

Both place meditation as an important exercise in reaching enlightenment. Ever heard of the Meditations by Marcus Aurelius?

Stoicism, like Buddhism, stresses that emotions, while not intrinsically bad, can lead to irrational behavior. Someone unable to control their passions is someone who is enslaved to their emotions. Stoics and Buddhists instead seek to become the Masters of their emotions, not letting them influence their judgment.

A popular example of a Buddhist ethic in practice would be the Jedi from Star Wars, which teaches detachment from emotions. Recall that it was Anakin Skywalker's inability to do this that lead to his rash siding with the dark side. Recall that Luke Skywalker's triumph on the death star in Return of the Jedi was that he did not surrender to his anger and slay Darth Vader or the Emperor.

A Roman stoic would have been similarly impressed with the Jedi. A stoic's life was centered around restraint. To a Roman, what separated civilized men from savage barbarians was the civilized man's ability to restrain his base whims. However, restraining emotion does not mean being cold or heartless. Stoicism also preached that all men are united in brotherhood, and we should seek to improve ourselves and the people around us. For example, it was Stoicism that introduced the concept of tipping waiters or waitresses for a job well done. It was the stoics who imbued a uniquely Roman trait in antiquity: kindness towards slaves. Some stoics even went so far as to say that slavery was morally wrong and needed to be outlawed. However, the abolition movement of the Romans never truly took off. But that didn't stop the very common Roman practice of freeing slaves as part of a man's will. And the children of freed slaves were born as fully fledged Roman citizens, which in antiquity was a rare display of generosity towards citizenship. As I mentioned above, Stoics viewed the human race as a brotherhood; anyone could make the conscious choice to become civilized. And this was reflected in Rome's habit of making new citizens out of newly conquered territories, and making citizens out of the children of freedmen.

I think that this is one of the greatest personal philosophies that a man can adhere too. By stressing Virtue, doing good for the sake of doing good is valued, making for naturally occuring integrity in people. Detaching ourselves from our emotions, and learning to depend on reason, is how scientists are able to advance knowledge, and is how we prevent ourselves from making irrational, detrimental decisions. Learning to objectively accept mankind as a brotherhood means an end to racism, sexism, and prejudice.

Answer 3

It large part, I think it's great.

However, there's a little too strong a smell of fatalism in there. Too much 'stay the course' and not enough 'cut and run'. Not enough emphasis on improvisation and flexibilty.

Think about Brutus. Starts out strong, but eventually gets the proverbial 'high hard one' because he doesn't know when to make like a banana and get out of town.

It's not quite "Beyond Good and Evil" enough for me, even though it purports itself to be just that kind of bag.