Stoicism for a secular age

By Massimo Pigliucci

Questions to which youll begin to find an answer by the end of this talk

What is the meaning of life? What is in my power to do? What is it mean to be mindful? How should I deal with emotions? How should I related to others? How should I prepare for adversity? What is my place in the cosmos?

I have to die. If it is now, well then I die now; if later, then now I will take my

lunch, since the hour for lunch has arrived and dying I will tend to later.

Epictetus, Discourses, I, 1, 32

Meet the Stoics (early Stoa)

Zeno of Citium Chrysippus

of Solithe Stoa

Meet the Stoics (late Stoa)

Seneca the Younger

Epictetus

Marcus Aurelius

Whence Stoicism?

The Stoics were influenced by Socrates and by the Cynics (minimalist philosophers,

like the famous Diogenes)

Stoicisms main rivals: Epicureanism, Skepticism, and Christianity

Epicurus Pyrrho Jesus

Stoic influences through the centuries:

Paul and the early Church Fathers, Boethius and Aquinas,

Renaissance humanism, Giordano Bruno, Thomas More, Erasmus,

Montaigne, Francis Bacon, Descartes, Montesquieu, Spinoza, Existentialism,

modern neo-Orthodox Protestant theology

Stoicisms closest contemporary kins: Secular (Humanism and Buddhism)

Consider at what price you sell your integrity; but please, for Gods sake,

dont sell it cheap.

Epictetus, Discourses, I, 2, 33

Stoicism 101: the Stoic egg

Stoic physics

* The universe started with a primordial fire * The world is made of matter * Causation is universal, acting always * The universe is organized rationally (Logos)

Therefore, life is to be lived according to Nature, i.e., according to reason

Stoic logic

* Stoics introduced propositional logic, distinct from Aristotles, similar to modern logic

* Distinction btw corporeal things and abstracts things

* Knowledge can be attained through reason, inprinciple capable of separating true from false

* Knowledge can only be achieved by peerexpertise and collective judgment

Stoic ethics

the Stoics did not seek to suppress emotions! Instead they taught to transform them,

applying our judgment to our natural emotional responses to give or withdraw assent, all with the goal of achieving inner calm

the Stoics distinguished between propathos (instinctive reaction) and

eupathos (feelings resulting from correct judgment)

the goal was to achieve apatheia, or peace of mind, in the sense of the result of

clear judgment and maintenance of equanimity in life

Ask me what the real good in mans case is, and I can only say that it is the right kind of

moral character. Epictetus, Discourses I, 8, 16

* Wisdom (sophia) * Courage (andreia) * Justice (dikaiosyne) * Temperance (sophrosyne)

Cato the Younger

Preferred and Dispreferred Indifferents

What matters: moral virtue

Preferred indifferents: those things that help us living according to Nature (i.e., reason)

Dispreferred indifferents: those things that hinder our living according to Nature

The Stoic Fork

What should we do then? Make the best use of what is in our power, and treat the rest in

accordance with its nature. Epictetus, Discourses, I, 1, 17

Do as Socrates did, never replying to the question of where he was from with, I am Athenian, or I am

from Corinth, but always, I am a citizen of the world. Epictetus, Discourses, I, 9, 1

Okay, but how do I practice? Stoic spiritual exercises

* morning meditation * Hierocles circle * the View from Above * the premeditatio malorum * mindfulness about (moral) choices * evening meditation / philosophical diary

Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious,

uncharitable men. All of these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill. I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can I be angry

with my kinsman or hate him; for we have come into the world to work together

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, II, 1

Fine, but does it work? evidence-based modern Stoicism

Stoicism is the direct (philosophical) ancestor of Victor Frankls logo-therapy, as well as

of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

* 16% average increase on life satisfaction scale * 10% increase on flourishing scale * 11% increase in experience of positive emotions * 16% reduction in experience of negative emotions

Fate permitting