[PDF]❤READ⚡ Stoic Stories: Stoicism by Its Best Stories (Ancient Wisdom)

Stoic Stories: Stoicism by Its Best Stories (Ancient Wisdom)

Stoic Stories: Stoicism by Its Best Stories This is a book of Stoic stories: stories about Stoics, stories told

by Stoics, and stories with a Stoic bent. Snuck between these heroic tales, and exemplified by them, are the main tenets of Stoic philosophy, served up in small, bite-size chunks. Romans by the imperial period had stopped believing in the hoary myths of old. In

any case, ancient religion privileged ritual over doctrine and offered little in terms of guidance and consolation. For that, people, especially educated people, turned instead to philosophy, which held out the promise of a flourishing life removed from wrongdoing and suffering. In that much, Stoicism can be thought of as the first and original self-help. The movement by this stage had become eclectic and syncretic, borrowing freely from other schools, and, in practical terms at least, represents the best that ancient philosophy and antiquity have to offer. Ancient though they are, Stoic precepts and practices are timeless and universal insofar as they speak to our deepest human nature: for all our progress in science, technology, and education, we are still plagued and tormented—perhaps now more than ever—by anger, fear, greed, grief, death, and mis-living. Stoicism was originally known by the name of its founder, Zeno of Citium, as ‘Zenonism’. But Zeno, being a Zenonist, was not given to megalomania, and the name was soon dropped in favour of ‘Stoicism’. The word ‘Stoicism’ derives from the Stoa Poikile or ‘Painted Porch’, a colonnade on the northern side of the agora in Athens where, overlooked by mythic and historic battle scenes, Zeno and his followers met to discuss and disseminate their ideas. At the heart of Stoicism is the idea that human beings ought to act in accord with their nature, which means two things. First, we are social animals, and designed to work together ‘like hands, or feet, or eyelids’. ‘Human nature’ said Musonius, ‘is very much like that of bees. A bee is not able to live alone it perishes when isolated. Indeed, it is intent on performing the common task of members of its species—to work and act together with other

bees.’ Second, while ants and bees, and maybe even wolves, may be more social than human beings, we are by a country mile the most rational of all animals, so that reason might be said to be our distinctive or defining function. Just as leopards ought to excel at running if they are to count as good leopards, so human beings ought to excel at reasoning if they are to count as good human beings. If we aim instead to excel at running or jumping or making money, we have not properly understood what it means to be a human being. Thus, of one who boasted of his diving, Aristippus asked, “Are you not ashamed to be proud of that which a dolphin can do?” As human beings, we ought at every moment to be rational and social.

Unfortunately, we are all too readily waylaid by unwise attachments and the destructive emotions to which they give rise. These attachments dangle the promise of pleasure or happiness but really offer only slavery—whereas, if only we could see it, nothing leads to pleasure and happiness as surely as reason and self-control. Today, most people think of ancient Stoicism (capital 'S') in terms of modern stoicism, that is, as the simple suppression or closeting of emotions.

This misleading modern derivation originate in the sixteenth century and should not be confused with the much older philosophical movement. The Stoic is not without emotions, but, ideally, without painful or unhelpful emotions such as anger, envy, and greed. To be without emotion, were that even possible, would be to be reduced to the inanimate state of a tree or a rock, whereas the Stoic seeks, on the contrary, to exist and excel qua human being. Thus, the Stoics invited positive and prosocial emotions such as compassion, friendship, and gratitude, which pour out

of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations. Already in Book 1, Marcus praises his tutor Sextus of Charonea for being ‘free from passion and yet full of love’. Those familiar with Stoicism often came to it in a crisis, but soon discovered that it is about much more than firefighting or even longer-term resilience building. While I was writing this book, a buttoned-up surgeon put me on the spot by asking how stoicism, the modern disposition, differs from Stoicism, the ancient philosophical movement. I ventured in reply, “stoicism today is about maintaining a stiff upper lip, whereas ancient Stocism is about seeking to maintain the ultimate perspective on everything, which then raises many interesting questions.” Unlike many modern interventions, Stoicism is not merely about feeling better, but about being better—which is, all considered, the surest way of feeling better, and not just better but better than ever before. Stoic Stories makes the case for the continued relevance of Stoicism when applied to contemporary life, and does so in an engaging and illuminating manner. —The BookLife Prize Roman Stoics: The 'Big Four' Seneca Seneca lived through the reigns of all five Julio-Claudian emperors. He wrote the Letters to Lucilius in his final years, intending them as his immortal legacy, prior to committing suicide on the order of Nero. The letters are an excellent entry point to Seneca, Stoicism, and philosophy in general. They collectively amount to a course in moral development and become longer as Lucilius appears to be making philosophical progress.

Montaigne, the 'French Seneca', modelled his Essays upon the Letters, writing in one of them, 'I have not devoted myself to any serious work except perhaps Plutarch and Seneca: but upon them, I draw as do the

Danaids...' Epictetus Epictetus was a slave who won his freedom and started his own successful school of philosophy before retiring into obscurity. Among his many students was the historian Arrian, who wrote up his spoken lectures 'word for word' as the Discourses.

The Discourses are down to earth, succinct, and forthright, as, for example, when Epictetus says, 'And who exactly are these people that you want to be admired by? Aren’t they the same people you are in the habit of calling crazy? And is this your life ambition then—to win the approval of lunatics?' The Discourses were much loved by Marcus Aurelius—a case of a slave inspiring an emperor. Musonius Musonius was a celebrated teacher who was thrice banished from Rome. He would often turn would-be students away, explaining to a young Epictetus that 'the more one pushes the intelligent person away from the life he was born for, the more he inclines towards it.' His school, he often said, was not some concert hall, where people come to be entertained, but a hospital, where they come, in trepidation, to be treated. The twenty-one lectures preserved in Stobaeus were recorded by one of his students. They are full of practical, everyday advice, and include a lecture on household furnishings and even one on hair. Marcus Aurelius In the last years of his life, Marcus Aurelius kept a journal, now called the Meditations, which has miraculously come down to us, and through which we might enter the mind of that rarest of things: a philosopher-king. The Meditations consists in a variety of disparate reflections that seem to have been written for the author’s own benefit: for strength, for guidance, and for self-improvement—for example, 'To speak to the Senate—or anyone—in the right tone,

without being overbearing. To choose the right words.'

This touching intimacy, and the epigrammatic character of many of his reflections, has ensured the appeal and perennial popularity of the work. Zeno's Shipwreck, or, How to Cope with Bad News Zeno of Citium is not to be confused with the perhaps equally famous Zeno of Elea, a pre-Socratic philosopher best known for his paradoxes, such as ‘Achilles and the Tortoise’. Our Zeno, the founder of Stoicism, hailed from Citium (modern-day Larnaca) in Cyprus, and may have been of Phoenician origin. As a young man, Zeno set sail from Phoenicia with a cargo of Tyrian purple (or imperial purple), a dye obtained by crushing or 'milking' predatory sea snails in the family Muricidae.

Unfortunately, he lost this precious cargo in a shipwreck, and wound up in Athens with little more than the clothes on his back. Having recovered from this ordeal, Zeno visited an oracle and asked what he should do ‘to live the best life’. The oracle replied cryptically that he ought to ‘have conversation with the dead’, or, in an alternative translation, ‘take on the complexion of the dead’. Interpreting this to mean that he ought to take up the study of ancient authors, he began frequenting a bookshop in the agora, the central square of Athens. One day, he picked up a copy of the Memorabilia, a collection of Socratic dialogues by Xenophon. Struck by Xenophon’s portrayal of Socrates in the Memorabilia, Zeno asked the bookseller where their likenesses might be found. At that very moment, the Cynic philosopher Crates of Thebes happened to be passing by. The bookseller pointed to him and said, “Follow yonder man.” Crates of Thebes had studied under Diogenes the Cynic, who had in turn studied under Antisthenes, who had in turn studied under

Socrates. Although there are several stories of Diogenes ‘dogging the footsteps’ of Antisthenes, it is possible that the two never met—their time together having been invented, or imagined, by later Stoics to link Zeno, and therefore Stoicism, to Socrates in a direct line of teaching. After agreeing to take him on, Crates gave Zeno a pot of lentil soup to carry across the Kerameikos, the potters’ quarter of Athens—a basic Cynic exercise for cultivating shamelessness, a trait valued not, of course, so as to revel in vice, but so as not to care about popular opinion. Unused to such menial tasks, the self-conscious Zeno attempted to hide the pot under his cloak as best he could.

Seeing this, Crates broke the pot with his staff, and Zeno darted off into the distance with lentil soup dripping down his legs. Crates called after him, “Why run away, my little Phoenician? Nothing terrible has befallen you.” Zeno remained with Crates for many years, but also spent time at the Platonic Academy and under Stilpo of the Megarian school. One day, Crates grabbed him by the cloak in an attempt to tear him away from Stilpo, prompting a now more confident Zeno to chide him, “The right way to seize a philosopher, Crates, is by the ears.” This little story, innocuous though it may seem, is important in highlighting that Stoicism developed out of more than just Cynicism. The incident with the pot of lentil soup suggests that Zeno, in those early days, was still a long way from wisdom. But how might he have dealt with his shipwreck had he then already been a Stoic?

In other words, how might he have used reason to lessen his hardship by putting it into proper perspective? Zeno might, for example, have begun by contextualizing his hardship, like so: “If I or anyone

undertakes a sea voyage, there is always a chance of a shipwreck. So it is hardly extraordinary, even to be expected, that after so many successful voyages I came to suffer a shipwreck. At least I came out unharmed, and still have many advantages and assets, not least my sound mind and education. Things could be a lot worse—for many people, they are. After all, I only lost my ship because I had one in the first place.

What will my misfortune amount to in five or ten years’ time, let alone a hundred? Who will care about my cargo then? Who even cares about it now?

Imperial purple, how ridiculous!” After contextualization, Zeno could have tried a technique called premeditatio malorum [Latin, ‘premeditation of future evils’], also known as ‘negative visualization’, which in his case would involve imagining the very worst that could now happen and hopefully realizing that even that isn’t so bad: “So, I’ve lost my ship and cargo. At best, my bottomry contract [shipping insurance in the ancient world] will cover my loans. At worst, I’ll have to sell some property to pay my creditors, and start over on a more modest scale. Is that really so terrible?” But my favourite technique is transformation, which involves turning hardship into an opportunity—which is, of course, just what Zeno did by attaching himself to Crates and becoming a philosopher. Had Zeno not ‘suffered’ a shipwreck, he would not have been the subject of the first chapter of this book. In fact, there would have been no book.

Given the influence of Stoicism on the Founding Fathers, there may have been no America either. As Zeno later put it, “I made a prosperous voyage when I suffered a shipwreck.' There is much more to mental health than the mere absence of mental disorder.

Today, I write about all the things that I was never taught. The new Ancient Wisdom series Recuperating and harnessing the best, most beautiful, and most powerful ideas of the Classical World. To be ignorant of the past is to be forever a child. For what is the time of man, lest it be interwoven with that memory of ancient things of a superior age? —Cicero The Meaning of Myth: With 12 Greek Myths Retold and Interpreted by a Psychiatrist The Gang of Three: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle Stoic Stories: Stoicism by Its Best Stories Indian Mythology and Philosophy Neel Burton Dr Neel Burton FRSA is a psychiatrist, philosopher, and winelover who lives and teaches in Oxford, England. He is a Fellow of Green-Templeton College in the University of Oxford, and the winner of the Society of Authors' Richard Asher Prize, the British Medical Association's Young Authors' Award, and the Medical Journalists' Association Open Book Award. His work regularly features in the likes of Aeon and Psychology Today and has been translated into several languages. His books include: The Meaning of Madness: A Critical Guide to Mental Health and Illness Hide and Seek: The Psychology of Self-Deception Heaven and Hell: The Psychology of the Emotions For Better For Worse: Essays on Love, Marriage, and More Hypersanity: Thinking Beyond Thinking The Art of Failure: The Anti Self-Help Guide The Meaning of Myth: With 12 Greek Myths Retold and Interpreted by a Psychiatrist The Gang of Three: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and more...