Stoicism For Dummies

Tom Morris is author of Philosophy For Dummies and 30 other books. He was a philosophy professor at The University of Notre Dame and now heads The Morris Institute for Human Values. Gregory Bassham is author of The Philosophy Book, an illustrated history of philosophy, and 10 other books. Gregory was a professor of philosophy at King’s College.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 3

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 4

Part 1: Ancient Stoicism 5

Chapter 1: Stoicism: A Philosophy for Our Time 7

A Way of Thought for Our Time 8

Hot philosophy in America 9

The Stoic formula 9

What Does “Philosophy” Even Mean? 10

What Wisdom Is and Is Not 11

Two sides of philosophy 12

Philosophy and life 14

Using Wisdom with the Stoics 17

Happiness and freedom 18

When to go to philosophy 20

Chapter 2: Socrates and the Beginnings of Western Philosophy 21

Heraclitus the (Cranky and) Obscure 22

Socrates: The Barefoot Gadfly and General Pain-in-the-Patootie of Ancient Athens 24

Care for the soul 25

Virtue is sufficient for happiness 26

No harm can come to a good person 26

Virtue is knowledge 27

No one does wrong willingly 27

Diogenes of Sinope: Socrates on Steroids 27

Virtue is the only true good 28

Virtue is sufficient for happiness 28

“Follow nature” 29

Be a citizen of the world 29

Chapter 3: The First Stoics 31

The Basic Teachings of Zeno and His Stoic Followers 32

Materialists through and through 32

Belief in Logos 33

Strict determinists 35

Belief in an afterlife 35

Live rationally 36

The good, the evil, and the indifferent 36

Only virtue leads to happiness 37

Why Stoicism Had Its Moment in Ancient Greece and Rome 39

Chapter 4: Stoicism Comes to Rome 41

Seneca and Epictetus 42

Seneca: Wealthy but Frugal 42

Philosophy as a therapy for the emotions 43

Coping with life’s hard knocks 44

Controlling anger 45

Epictetus: Slave Turned Philosopher 47

True freedom 48

The dichotomy of control 49

Radical acceptance 50

Chapter 5: Marcus Aurelius: Philosopher-Emperor 53

A Stoic Philosopher Comes to the Throne 53

Early influences 54

Conversion to Stoicism 55

Reign as emperor 55

Personal tragedies and death 56

Two Themes in Marcus’s Philosophy 58

Impermanence: Reality is flux 58

Pessimism 59

The Demise of Ancient Stoicism 63

The demise of “the old gods” of paganism 63

The rise of competing philosophies 63

Failure to appeal to the masses 63

Attacks by rival philosophical schools 64

Down but not out 64

Part 2: the Stoic Worldview 65

Chapter 6: The Stoic View of Reality 67

Everything Is Made of Matter 68

God and Nature 69

Stoic pantheism 69

The Earth’s place in the universe 70

Stoic arguments for God 70

Stoic belief in periodic conflagrations 72

The Place of Humanity in the Cosmos 73

An anthropocentric view 73

Belief in a (temporary) afterlife 74

Finding truth in outdated notions 76

Chapter 7: Providence, Fate, and Free Will 77

“Everything Is Fated” 78

Fatalism gone rogue 79

Free will and responsibility 81

Is God to Blame for Evil? 85

Seneca’s response 85

Natural evils and animal pain 86

Are sin and evil caused by God? 87

Stoic Fate and Passivity 88

Divine Providence 89

Part 3: Stoic Ethics 93

Chapter 8: Virtue as the Goal of Life 95

Virtus and Arete 96

Virtus 96

Arete 97

Virtue at the Center 98

May the Force be with you 98

Vice: The opposite of virtue 99

Can you progress toward virtue? 99

Happiness and Virtue 101

The surface complexity of happiness 103

The Stoic simplification of it all 105

Virtue and happiness coincide 105

Only virtue is good, and only vice is bad 106

The Good, Bad, and Indifferent 107

What’s different about the Stoic indifferent 109

Inner and outer things 113

A good person can’t be harmed 114

Use and value 115

Chapter 9: Things We Can Control 119

The Dichotomy of Control 120

Your wants and your power 121

Exploring the Concept of Control 124

Value judgments, desires, and goals 125

More options about control 126

The inner citadel or fortress 128

Another spectrum 130

The Problem of External Goals 131

Relationships, reason, and common good 131

A modern Stoic’s strategy 133

Trying Our Best 137

An Alternate Strategy 138

Our emotional relationship to goals 139

The proper path of action 140

Chapter 10: Desire and the Happy Life 143

Getting Clear about Desire 144

Commitments 144

Thought, desire, and action 145

Managing desires 147

Whatever should be will be 147

Desiring only what is true 148

The problem of evil 149

Desire and Happiness 150

The Desire Satisfaction View of Happiness 151

Finding the real flaws here 154

An Opportunity for Hope 156

The gap is good 157

Can you rid yourself of desires? 158

The many facets of happiness 160

Desire for that which is 160

Happiness comes from within 162

Chapter 11: Pleasure and Pain 163

The Epicurean Pull of Pleasure 163

Epicurus on pleasure 164

Stoic objections to Epicureanism 166

Pleasure and Pain with the Stoics 167

Epictetus has his say 168

Marcus Aurelius weighs in 170

Seneca joins the fray 175

Using Sensations and Situations 178

Chapter 12: Natural Law 183

What Is Natural Law? 184

Cicero on natural law 185

Basic elements of natural law 186

Natural Law in Roman Law 189

Modern Stoicism and Natural Law 190

Natural law: Pros and cons 191

Chapter 13: Building Strong Communities 197

Philosophers as Social Advisors 197

The Two Roots of Community 199

Reason and relationality 199

The self and society 200

Plato and Aristotle Behind It All 202

Our need to belong 203

Aristotle on the power of partnership 203

Platonic perspectives 205

Community and political virtues 206

Circles of Community and Care 207

The rings of our lives 207

Making the most of our circles 209

The Four Foundations 210

The demands of love 211

Citizens of the world 213

Part 4: Passions and Emotions 217

Chapter 14: Stoic Apathy: Why You Should Care 219

Two Ideas of Apathy 220

Two big problems 220

An ancient idea and a modern translation 220

Definitions and Images in Film 221

Digging Deeper into Stoic Apathy 222

The Discipline We Need 224

The Nature of Emotions 225

Apathy and Ataraxia 227

Stoic serenity 228

The extremes of Epictetus 229

Finding Sensible Peace 232

Concluding Thoughts on Apathy 234

Chapter 15: Love and Friendship 235

Two Big Ideas for Friendship and Love 235

The Stoic idea of agreement 236

The idea of appropriation 237

True Friendship 238

Aristotle on friendship 238

Stoic friends 240

The Interpenetrating Unity of Souls 245

Is the self a walled fortress? 245

Distributed cognition 246

A unique virtue 247

Virtue or vulnerability? 248

Stoics in Love and on It 249

Sex and Love with the Stoics 251

Chapter 16: The Fear of Death 257

Matters of Life and Death 257

Philosophy as Preparation for Death 258

The Socratic acceptance of mortality 259

The Stoics’ concerns 259

Two Epicurean Efforts to Calm Us Down 261

The Symmetry Argument 261

The Impossibility of Harm Argument 262

Epictetus Against Fearing Death 264

The Judgment Argument 266

The Avoidance Argument 268

The Ignorance Argument 271

The Acceptance Argument 271

Marcus Aurelius Weighs in on Death 274

The Sameness Argument 275

The Natural and Liberating Argument 276

The Normal Change Argument 279

Seneca’s Quantity or Quality Argument 281

Part 5: Stoic Virtues 285

Chapter 17: The Master Virtues 287

The Nature of Virtue 287

Arete, or excellence 288

Good habits 288

The Stoic View of Virtue 289

From the Cynics 289

From Socrates 290

Stoic paradoxes relating to virtue 290

The Four Cardinal Virtues 291

Courage 292

Self-control 294

Justice 296

Wisdom 297

Evaluating the four cardinal virtues 298

Chapter 18: Finding Resilience and Inner Peace 299

Resilience: The Art of Bouncing Back 300

Live in the present moment 300

Adopt the view from above 301

Look at the situation objectively 302

Cut people some slack 303

Take a walk on the wild side 304

Keep Stoic basics ready to hand 304

The Stoic Quest for Inner Peace 306

Anticipate possible adversities 306

Practice morning and evening meditations 307

Start journaling 308

Act with a reserve clause 308

Practice voluntary discomfort 309

Contemplate impermanence 310

Adopt good role models 312

Focus on what you can control 312

Curb your desires for externals 313

Practice Amor Fati 314

Part 6: Stoicism Today 317

Chapter 19: The Stoic Next Door: The Popular Revival of Stoicism Today 319

The Rise of Modern Stoicism 320

The therapists 321

The sixties 322

Existentialism 323

Virtue ethics 323

A renewal of scholarly work 324

Cultural attention 324

Leading Figures in Modern Stoicism 327

William B Irvine 327

Donald Robertson 331

Massimo Pigliucci 333

Ryan Holiday 335

Chapter 20: Modern Stoicism 339

What Is Modern Stoicism? 339

Key Differences: Ancient and Modern 341

Theoretical ambitions 342

Intellectual foundations 342

Attitude toward religion 343

Plausibility 343

Central focus 345

Intended audience 346

Argumentative and rhetorical styles 346

Modern Stoicism: Down and Upsides 349

Modern Stoicism: The cons 349

Modern Stoicism: The pros 353

Part 7: the Part of Tens 357

Chapter 21: Ten Books Every (Budding) Stoic Should Read 359

The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius 360

A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy 360

The Stoic Art of Living: Inner Resilience and Outer Results 361

How To Be a Stoic 361

How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius 362

The Stoics (2nd edition) 362

The Obstacle Is the Way 363

The Daily Stoic 363

Epictetus: A Stoic and Socratic Guide 363

Breakfast with Seneca: A Stoic Guide to the Art of Living 364

Chapter 22: Ten Great Stoic Blogs and Podcasts 365

Daily Stoic Blog 365

Stoicism Today Blog 366

Figs in Winter Blog 366

Stoicism: Philosophy as a Way of Life 366

Traditional Stoicism Blog 367

Daily Stoic Podcast 367

The Walled Garden Podcast 367

Stoic Meditations Podcast 368

Stoicism: Philosophy As a Way of Life Podcast 368

Stoic Coffee Break Podcast 368

Index 369