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If you ever heard of Stoicism and wanted to know more, this article might help you to understand this school of philosophy and maybe become one.
Steps
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1Read about the origin of Stoicism. It's a philosophy from the Graeco-Roman period of classical history, first founded by Zeno of Citium, whose works have now been lost.[1]
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2Take to heart the teachings of Zeno that all suffering comes from certain destructive emotions, known as the Stoic passions.Advertisement
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3Control your passions. Therefore, to achieve the true happiness, you must control your passions: they are distress, fear, lust and delight. These are described as follows by Zeno:[2]
- Distress – a contraction, or a fresh opinion that something poor is present, at which people think if it were right to be depressed.
- Fear – an aversion or avoidance of an expected danger.
- Lust – a desire or pursuit of an expected good.
- Delight – swelling or a fresh opinion that something good is present, at which people think it right to be elated.
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4All these are then sub-divided with different destructive emotions for each primary passion.[3]
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5Read and understand Stoic handwritings based on the flow that they were written in. Most Stoic works have been lost, so you can acquire more knowledge about Stoic thoughts from different books. [4]
- The classical examples might be Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations/Thoughts to Myself", Seneca's "Letters from a Stoic" and "On the shortness of life".
- John Sellars' "Stoicism" gives a good history of stoicism, that is easy to read, while comprehensive.
- Bertrand Russell's 'A history of western philosophy' also discusses Stoicism, both of these will give you outside opinion of Stoicism.
- Ryan Holiday's 'Daily Stoic' is a daily devotional that combines many writings and explains them in modern, simple-to-read language.
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6Control your emotions at all times through the right assent of external and internal impressions. This is Stoics' famous principle. The word "stoic", meaning a person who tolerates pain and doesn't complain about it, has come into the English language from stoicism.
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7Lead a plain and simple life, disdain anything added by the way of decoration.
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8Have a few Laconic tendencies, like Laconic brevity in speech and eating sparingly.
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9Wear simple but comfortable clothes.
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10Be always familiar with poverty, just in case you became beggared. Stoicism doesn't mean leading a frugal life. Seneca was a senator, Marcus Aurelius was an emperor, they merely advocated non-materialism.[5]
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11Accept the fate. Similar to the Buddhist idea of the universe, believe everything is constantly changing and humans were just tiny parts of nature; it is, therefore, necessary for you to accept the fate without hesitation.[6]
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12Be happy in all circumstances. Stoics advocated the idea that no matter what happens to you, you are still happy; no matter how painful or pleasuring is your life, you have a potential to be generally satisfied with life.
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13Prepare. Memento mori: Remember your life is short. Prepare and be familiar this statement, however, you don't have to fear death, as fear is inappropriate for the stoic.
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14Understand the core virtues: At the heart of the Stoic philosophy, there are courage of the soul, humility, honesty, compassion and solidarity between people.
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Community Q&A
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QuestionWhen was stoicism founded?
DonaganTop AnswererIn the third century BCE. -
QuestionWould you consider King Solomon as stoic?Benjamin M.Top AnswererNo. Stoicism holds that people only have control of their reactions to the world, but that the world is fundamentally deterministic. Judaism, on the other hand, fundamentally holds that people have free will and are "partners" in creation. King Solomon is only stoic in the sense that he recognizes everything that happens is good.
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QuestionI thought the Stoics knew that feelings are fleeting, and neither happiness nor sadness last forever? What's the source of this article's idea that Stoics force themselves to be happy always?Dagon ChernovskiCommunity AnswerHappiness and pleasure were diverse things for Stoics. Happiness means general life satisfaction, no matter how many issues it throws at you. Pleasure, as well as pain, is temporary, and these things were equal and nonessential for stoics. However, they concentrated their forces on demolishing the passions - distress, fear, lust and delight. The sought "apatheia" - a state of being free from these passions, and reinforced the constructive ones that were important for the virtue (such as compassion, empathy, love and goodwill).
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References
- ↑ https://www.iep.utm.edu/stoicism/#H6
- ↑ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism/#Phil
- ↑ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism/#Phil
- ↑ https://www.iep.utm.edu/stoicism/#H6
- ↑ https://medium.com/the-mission/my-incredibly-simple-guide-to-stoicism-learn-wisdom-you-can-practically-use-67a0195298ee
- ↑ https://medium.com/the-mission/my-incredibly-simple-guide-to-stoicism-learn-wisdom-you-can-practically-use-67a0195298ee
About This Article
Article SummaryX
Stoicism is a philosophy from the Graeco-Roman period that argues all suffering comes from destructive emotions, and that in order to be happy, you need to learn how to control those emotions. The main destructive emotions in stoicism are distress, fear, lust, and delight. To be a stoic, you should strive to live a plain and simple life and avoid being materialistic. Additionally, work on being happy regardless of your circumstances since stoics don't base their feelings on what's happening around them. Instead, they're able to control their emotions so they're content at all times. To learn more about Stoicism, like how to study the teachings of famous stoics, scroll down!
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