STOICISM

[Otaku.edc]

Anyone here have an interest in Stoicism or considers themselves a student/practitioner?

Reader of Epictetus? Seneca? Marcus Aurelius? Rufus? Cicero?

Subscriber to the Daily Stoic?

Interested in how to make the four Stoic virtues (justice, temperance, courage, wisdom) a habit?

The role that oikeiosis ought to play in our social and political relationships?

What are the best translations of the primary works? What are the best books “about” Stoicism?

What are the best blogs/online sources?

Anyhow, I’m a student of it for the several years and miss talking about it online.

[JHC]

Dabbled. Mostly it was ingrained by my dad who could have written the book.

[WobblyPossum]

I believe that Meditations and Letters From a Stoic helped shape me into the person I am today. They didn’t put new ideas in my head but explained and expanded on things I felt and thought in ways I couldn’t articulate.

[Chemsoldier]

I don't know how good a stoic i am, but i admire the hell out of them. Found it through internet sources, perhaps Brett McKay's The Art of Manliness. Read The Obstacle is the Way. Read James Stockdale's works. I have read Epictetus, Meditations and am working my way through Seneca's letters.

[Otaku.edc]

I believe that Meditations and Letters From a Stoic helped shape me into the person I am today. They didn’t put new ideas in my head but explained and expanded on things I felt and thought in ways I couldn’t articulate.

Dabbled. Mostly it was ingrained by my dad who could have written the book.

One of, if not the main thing, I love about Stoicism is that it is/was viewed to be a “philosophy as a way of life” (Pierre Hadot).

The lessons are in living.

If you asked the Roman Stoicism for examples of Stoic philosophers they were apt to say, not people who wrote treatises, but people of action ie people of virtue. The person they did name often was Cato.

But formal discourse will not do as much for you as direct contact, speaking in person, and sharing a meal. You must come and see me face to face - first of all, because humans believe their eyes much more than their ears, and second, because learning by precepts is the long way around. The quick and effective way is to learn by example.

- Seneca, Letter 6.5

@DanM: The University of Chicago Press published the COMPLETE Letters of Seneca a few years ago, the first such translation into English in nearly a century. It is a triumph.

[Otaku.edc]

I don't know how good a stoic i am, but i admire the hell out of them. Found it through internet sources, perhaps Brett McKay's The Art of Manliness. Read The Obstacle is the Way. Read James Stockdale's works. I have read Epictetus, Meditations and am working my way through Seneca's letters.

James Stockdale is a great example of a Stoic. I’m pleased his talks to the Naval Academy are available online, Part One and Part Two.

[Otaku.edc]

Stoicism and the GWOT

A couple of blog posts on Stoicism and its relationship to the GWOT.

This one is by Donald Robertson, one of the best Stoic scholars living writing about how a piece written by the popular historian John Meacham (about an attempted airline bombing) gets a bit of Stoic philosophy (from Marcus Aurelius) actually correct, a rare thing in popular culture.

The other is by Seth Haselhuhn, a sports psychologist on “How to build Stoic toughness and resilience.” If you recognize him, it’s likely from a series of videos he did with BaerSolutions/GreyHive.

[John Hearne]

I consider myself a failed Stoic, does that count?

[Otaku.edc]

I consider myself a failed Stoic, does that count?

The classic line is that there are no Stoic Sages, hence by extension no Stoics. Epictetus, probably the most militant of the Roman Stoics, used to use the label of ‘philosopher’ as an insult. Seneca is viewed by many, including his contemporaries, as a failed Stoic, given his vast wealth and relationship with the Emperor Nero.

All to say, outside Socrates, Cato, and some names lost to history..... we are in welcome and good company. 🔥🖖

Why did you decorate yourself with what belonged to others? Why did you call yourself a Stoic?

Observe yourselves thus in your actions, and you will find to what sect you belong. You will find that most of you are Epicureans, a few Peripatetics, and those feeble. For wherein will you show that you really consider virtue equal to everything else or even superior? But show me a Stoic, if you can. Where or how? But you can show me an endless number who utter small arguments of the Stoics. For do the same persons repeat the Epicurean opinions any worse? And the Peripatetic, do they not handle them also with equal accuracy? who then is a Stoic? As we call a statue Phidiac, which is fashioned according to the art of Phidias; so show me a man who is fashioned according to the doctrines which he utters. Show me a man who is sick and happy, in danger and happy, dying and happy, in exile and happy, in disgrace and happy. Show him: I desire, by the gods, to see a Stoic. You cannot show me one fashioned so; but show me at least one who is forming, who has shown a tendency to be a Stoic. Do me this favour: do not grudge an old man seeing a sight which I have not seen yet.

Epictetus, Discourses 2.19.20

[FrankinCA]

I believe that Meditations and Letters From a Stoic helped shape me into the person I am today. They didn’t put new ideas in my head but explained and expanded on things I felt and thought in ways I couldn’t articulate.

Absolutely agree. I’ve only read Meditations though. It gave me great insight into myself and how I view/interact with the world.

I also give Frank Herbert (Dune) credit as well. Although not stoicism, it touches on many themes.