What is Stoicism?
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The Stoic philosophy has been around for thousands of years. The core beliefs of stoicism are still relevant to this very day.
Stoicism is a practical philosophy. It’s a philosophy we can use in everyday life.
A major goal of stoicism is to become in control of our emotions. The Stoics believe that strong emotions are our ultimate weakness.
They believe that strong emotions are the root of all suffering.
They take us away from our inner peace. Strong, negative emotions especially. They cause us to take actions that only hurt others, and ourselves. This includes arguing, yelling, insulting, and so on.
The Stoics don’t want us to stop expressing emotion. They want us to remain calm despite the strong power our emotions can have.
The Stoics believed that to live a good life we must apply philosophy to everyday challenged and develop into the best version of ourselves.
The ultimate goal in life, according to the Stoics is achieving Eudaimonia. This is a smoothly flowing life full of happiness. Essentially, Eudaimonia is a life of flourishing.
There are three core principles that Stoics live by to achieve Eudaimonia. These principles are:
Take responsibility
Live with Areté
Focus on what is in our control
The Stoics believed that taking responsibility was a key to happiness because the good and bad come solely from ourselves. We are responsible for our lives because every event in life offers an area that we DO control…
How we choose to respond to an event is what guides our happiness. We can choose to let an event affect us positively or negatively.
Or you can be indifferent to it and remain unphased by the event, which the Stoics preferred in most situations.
Living with Areté means expressing the best version of ourselves at all times. We must live in harmony with our deep values, model our values and beliefs, and use reason to guide our actions.
Finally, the most important principle of Stoicism is to focus on what we can control. What already happened needs to be accepted by us, regardless of the outcome. We cannot undo what has happened.
What is beyond our control is not important. It doesn’t help us flourish. However, what is important to our flourishing is how we respond to external events. We need to make the best of any situation.
Nothing external is necessary for us to live in Eudaimonia. We just need to express the best versions of ourselves.
Virtue is the link between who we are right now and who the best version of ourselves is.
Virtue is the perfection of reason. It is the ability to use reasonable thinking while caring for others and contributing to the common good. And to live with virtue we must live harmoniously with nature, calmly accepting events that happen to us and around us.
We do not need to live a perfect life. But we must do our best to live up to the best version of ourselves.
The positive feelings that we have after taking virtuous action must NOT be the main reason for our actions. Instead, these feelings should be viewed as bonuses. Living with virtue is the reward.
There are 4 cardinal virtues of stoicism:
Wisdom- Understanding how to act and feel correctly in any given situation
Justice- Doing what is best for the common good, being fair
Courage- Acting bravely in the face of difficult situations
Self-Discipline (temperance)- Doing what is right for ourselves, despite any emotions we might have
All 4 virtues are equally important to the Stoics. Each virtue builds upon the other to help us live our best lives.
Stoicism is a great philosophy to live by. It gives us values to help improve our lives. It pushes us to be brave and take action. It pushes us to do what is right for others. It teaches us how to master our emotions. And it pushes us to live up to the person we can become.
References:
Salzgeber, J. (2019). The Little Book of Stoicism: Timeless wisdom to gain resilience, confidence, and calmness. Jonas Salzgeber.