Stoic Philosophy

Philosophies of the Stoics

• 
• Pie de imagen: The central philosophy to the idea of Stoisawg

Key Ideas Around Stoicism

• Value
• Emotions
• Nature
• Control

Value

• The
• only thing that is truly good is an excellent mental state, identified with
• virtue and reason. This is the only thing that can guarantee our happiness.
• External things such as money, success, fame and the like can never bring us
• happiness. Although there is nothing wrong with these things and they do hold
• value and may well form part of a good life, often the pursuit of these things
• actually damages the only thing that can bring us happiness: an excellent,
• rational mental state.

Emotions

• Our
• emotions are the project of our judgements, of thinking that something good or
• bad is happening or is about to happen. Many of our negative emotions are based
• on mistaken judgements, but because they are due to our judgements it means
• they are within our control. Change the judgements and you change the emotions.
• Despite the popular image, the Stoic does not repress or deny his emotions;
• instead he simply doesn’t have them in the first place. This isn’t as cold as
• it might at first sound: we ought to overcome harmful, negative emotions that
• are based on mistaken judgments while embracing correct positive emotions, replacing
• anger with joy.

Nature

• The
• Stoics suggest we ought to live in harmony with Nature. Part of what they mean
• by this is that we ought to acknowledge that we but small parts of a larger,
• organic whole, shaped by larger processes that are ultimately out of our
• control. There is nothing to be gained from trying to resist these larger
• processes except anger, frustration, and disappointment. While there are many
• things in the world that we can change, there are many others we cannot and we
• need to understand this and accept it.

Control

• In the
• light of what we have seen, there are some things we have control over (our
• judgements, our own mental state) and some things that we do not (external
• processes and objects). Much of our unhappiness is caused by confusing these
• two categories: thinking we have control over something that ultimately we do
• not. Happily the one thing we do have control over is the only thing that can
• guarantee a good, happy life.