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Stoicism

What Stoicism is now defined as and what it orginally meant are two distintively different ideas. It is now mostly understood as the indifference to pleasure and pain or as the philosophy of the Stoics following the teaching of the ancient Greek philosopher Zeno. It is and always will be about the philosophy of Zeno but time and several other students of this philosophy have altered the general perception of what this philosophy seeks to achieve.


Stocism was founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in 308 BC. It got it's name from the painted porch (stoa poikile) where the philosophy was taught. One of Zeno's central teachings was that the law of morality is the same as the law of nature. The idea was to be free from suffering (which the Stoics called the passions) through apathy (but in the ancient sense of being objective or having "clear judgment" rather than simple indifference, as it implies today.) Stocism as a philosophy teaches freedom from passion by following reason. Simply not letting emotions cloud your judgement.


So what were the passions according to the stoics:


Pain - Grief or pain they hold to be an irrational mental contraction. Its species are pity, envy, jealousy, rivalry, heaviness, annoyance, distress, anguish, distraction. Pity is grief felt at undeserved suffering; envy, grief at others' prosperity; jealousy, grief at the possession by another of that which one desires for oneself; rivalry, pain at the possession by another of what one has oneself. heaviness or vexation is grief which weighs us down, annoyance that which coops us up and straitens us for want of room, distress a pain brought on by anxious thought that lasts and increases, anguish painful grief, distraction irrational grief, rasping and hindering us from viewing the situation as a whole.


Fear - Fear is an expectation of evil. Under fear are ranged the following emotions: terror, nervous shrinking, shame, consternation, panic, mental agony. Terror is a fear which produces fright; shame is fear of disgrace; nervous shrinking is a fear that one will have to act; consternation is fear due to a presentation of some unusual occurrence; panic is fear with pressure exercised by sound; mental agony is fear felt when some issue is still in suspense.


Desire - Desire or craving is irrational appetency, and under it are ranged the following states: want, hatred, contentiousness, anger, love wrath, resentment. Want, then, is a craving when it is baulked and, as it were, cut off from its object, but kept at full stretch and attracted towards it in vain. Hatred is a growing and lasting desire or craving that it should go ill with somebody. Contentiousness is a craving or desire connected with partisanship; anger a craving or desire to punish one who is thought to have done you an undeserved injury. The passion of love is a craving from which good men are free; for it is an effort to win affection due to the visible presence of beauty. Wrath is anger which has long rankled and has become malicious, waiting for its opportunity, as is illustrated by the lines: "Even though for the one day he swallow his anger, yet doth he still keep his displeasure thereafter in his heart, till he accomplish it." Resentment is anger in an early stage.


Pleasure - Pleasure is an irrational elation at the accruing of what seems to be choice-worthy; and under it are ranged ravishment, malevolent joy, delight, transport. Ravishment is pleasure which charms the ear. Malevolent joy is pleasure at another's ills. Delight is the minds propulsion to weakness....To be in transports of delight is the melting away of virtue.


To the Stoics all of these things prevent an individual from having clear judgement. All the passions are based upon judgments about perceived states of affairs that cause some active response in the moral agent: pleasure, for example, is a judgment about a present perceived good that causes the subject to feel elated, while pain is a judgment about a present perceived evil that causes depression in its subject. Stoics connect the passions with judgments or beliefs and imply that these judgments are by their very nature incorrect. They can then acknowledge that assent given to these faulty judgments creates an excessive impulse in the soul that goes contrary to reason, and hence believe that all passions are an impediment to virtue. The foundations of Stoicism teach that ethics and virtue lead to happiness and passions prevent you from being virtuous and happy. The stoics believed that if we recoginize virtue as our sole good and scorn worldly advantages as completely indifferent to our well being we can not help but be happy.


When looking at the roots of Stoicism the virtues considered are wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance. Wisdom - ability to apply knowledge or experience or understanding or common sense and insight. Courage - The state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger, fear, or vicissitudes with self-possession, confidence, and resolution; bravery. Justice - The upholding of what is just, especially fair treatment and due reward in accordance with honor, standards, or law. Temperance - habitual moderation in the indulgence of the appetites or passions. Stepping back a moment the defination of virtue itself has changed dramatically throughout history at one time referring to masculine roles of courage while the english version refers to a woman's chasity. These virtues are not exclusive as I could find no place that listed them without the inclusion of one or more virtues. The above mentioned virtues are specifically the four cardinal virtues (one of the few elements of the Stoics adopted by christianity.) Some other virtues to consier are; acceptance, awareness, compassion, curiosity, empathy, faith, honesty, kindness, piety, self-discipline, self-reliance, and understanding. Different cultures value different character traits so every individuals perception on what a constitues a virtue may be different.


My conclusion:

Pleasure is not good. Pain is not evil. Stocism is a path to clear and focused thinking. If the mind can be free from manipulation by the emotions the truth can be seen. Emotions are a reaction to some impetus. Validating the reaction does not create a solution or shed light on the impetus. Why wade through the flood of emotions with the kowledge that the solution is up the ladder of logic? Emotions remind us that we are alive, that we are connected and hopefully that we are responsible for our own happiness. Emotions are not bad, they should just come second to logic. They should not be clouds blinding you to your own truths. I will remain stoic to others as no one but you should have power over my mind. The logical analysis of my emotional reactions will teach me my truths, or rather your truths.