Background
Stoicism is a Hellenistic philosophy that was started in Athens, Greece, in the 3rd Century BCE by Zeno of Citium. “Hellenistic” refers to the time period from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE to the founding of the Roman Empire in 31-30 BCE. This time was marked by the cultural interplay between disparate peoples, unified through their conquest by Alexander the Great.
Zeno was a merchant who suffered a shipwreck and found himself without a place in the world. He is said to have wandered into a bookshop and heard a philosopher speak. He was so enamored with the philosophy that he heard that he immediately began to study it, eventually going on to found his own school. Zeno was distinct from other philosophers in that he sought a common space to discuss logical, ethical, and physical questions, which resulted in him teaching from the Stoa Poikile (trans. “painted porch”) from which Stoicism gets its name.
The philosophical school was passed down in a line of teachers directly, eventually being translated from Grecian society and imported to the Roman Republic, where it gained prominence with politicians and the noble class due to its actionable steps to guide virtue in public life. It survived the fall of the republic and continued developing in the empire, concluding its prominence with three ancient Stoics— Seneca the Younger, who advised the emperor Nero; Epictetus, a slave-turned-teacher who codified much of the extant ethical philosophy of Roman Stoicism; and the philosopher-king Marcus Aurelius, whose personal journal survives today.
Primary Teachings
Many of the original Stoic writings are lost to history, and much of what remains focuses on ethics, which would have been only one-third of the philosophy (logic and physics were also a part of every philosophical school). As a result, much of the Stoic revival of today focuses primarily on ethics.
Judgements
The Stoic ethical system has many components, but is primarily focused on one idea: there are things that we can control (internal) and there are things we cannot control (external), and we must have the wisdom to know the difference. Out of this understanding, the rest of the ethical doctrine develops. The things which belong to us are internal only; specifically, our judgements, our actions, our virtue and anything that arises in the mind. Anything else is external to us and not under our control, ranging from other people’s thoughts and opinions, to twists and turns of fate and even our own bodies.
This is one of the main focuses of Epictetus’ Discourses, where he explores the concept that, once we are able to determine what is in our control and what is outside of it, we can learn to act rightly and find peace.
Virtues
Being a philosophy that primarily focuses on ethics, Stoicism developed core tenets that take the form of the cardinal virtues of wisdom, courage, justice and temperance. These virtues are the bedrock of Stoicism and its form of ethical behavior— Marcus Aurelius said “if you find anything better than justice, prudence, self-control, courage… it must be an extraordinary thing indeed.”
These virtues, while found throughout the Stoic texts, took their form as the four cardinal virtues at the hand of Arius Didymus, a Stoic teacher during the creation of the Roman Empire. He provided concise definitions and delineations of the virtues, and I have included these before a further analysis. All of Didymus’ translations come from the book Lives of the Stoics by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman.
Wisdom
The knowledge of what things must be done and what must not be done and what is neither, or appropriate acts.
—Arius Didymus
Wisdom is the embodied study of the art of living. There are many facets of that study:
Challenging your preconceived notions and deeply held beliefs. Musonius Rufus, often called the Roman Socrates, thought that if someone left his lectures without having been shaken to his core, he failed as a philosopher (Lectures and Fragments).
Reflecting on your thoughts and challenging every feeling and impression. “Straightway then practice saying to every harsh appearance, You are an appearance, and in no manner what you appear to be. Then examine it by the rules which you possess…” (Epictetus, Enchiridion).
Subjugating your bodily desires and externals to your mind and choices.
Practicing what you learn. “Throw away your books,” as Marcus Aurelius admonished himself (Meditations). True wisdom comes in practice of knowledge, not in hoarding it like treasure.
Taking on an apprenticeship in the greater quest of philosophy. “For we must indeed have someone according to whom we may regulate our characters; you can never straighten that which is crooked unless you use a ruler” (Seneca, Moral Letters).
Pursuit of the Sage as an ideal, living in harmony with what nature demands (specifically, acting with virtue in all instances).
Courage
The knowledge of what is terrible and what isn’t and what is neither.
—Arius Didymus
Courage is the act of bravery in the face of evil. As dramatic as that may sound in the 21st century, this is how the Stoics felt. According to the Stoics, the only things that can be good or evil are our own actions, over which we have true control. Courage stands in the face of the impressions or desires pulling us toward wrong choices and keeps us on the path of good. Courage, like wisdom, is not just a concept, it is actionable— to make the right choice in the face of every obstacle. To keep pressing ahead when things seem unmovable. To create motion where stagnation seems assured. It’s a beautiful and simple concept, but one of the hardest to put into practice. “If there are brambles in the path,” Marcus Aurelius chides himself, “go around them” (Meditations).
Justice
The knowledge of apportioning each person and situation what is due.
—Arius Didymus
Stoic justice implies a greater good, a greater sympatheia of our common humanity. Sympatheia is the Greek word used to describe the interconnectedness of the cosmos, from the tiniest atom to the whole universe. Justice, then, is the application of that interconnectedness towards rightness. Not only is it fair and just punishment in a court of law, but also the treatment of our fellow person as a whole. A just society, then, would be judged by how it treats its homeless people, its minority groups, those less fortunate and less privileged.
There is an almost utopian underpinning here; the Stoics believed that their mission was to treat all people fairly and in accordance with nature, recognizing always that we are all made of the same pieces and share in one humanity. Justice flows from this common point; we cannot treat others, who are the same as us, any differently from how would treat ourselves, and we must act accordingly. Where there is unnatural treatment to another, it hurts the whole, and if it hurts the whole, it hurts me.
Temperance
The knowledge of what things are worth choosing and what are worth avoiding and what is neither.
—Arius Didymus
Not only is it the avoidance of harmful things, it’s the rejection of all vices and desires that seek to pull attention away from stability and right choice. Epictetus talks about temperance in great detail, with assenting to, or pulling away from, various impressions being the cornerstone of ethics (Discourses). Stoic temperance seeks to make this the standard, not the exception, by restricting negative and potentially damaging externals from accessing the mind. “Straight, not straightened” as Marcus Aurelius said (Meditations). If you are not temperate, it harms your very soul and degenerates the habits of goodness that you have been cultivating. The stakes are the highest they could possibly be; only present choice and action are under your control, so choosing to assent to a vice is a tantamount evil— an evil choice.
Conclusion
These virtues, then, form the foundation of all of Stoic ethics. And none of them can be taken in isolation; the reality of these virtues is that they actively interplay with each other. The only way to know what is good and right is through wisdom, the abilities to act rightly and resist wrong exist through justice and temperance, and the steps on the path to actualization can only come with courage. In this way, these virtues are interconnected and inseparable.
Notable Figures
Seneca the Younger
Seneca was born into a noble family and spent most of his career as the advisor and tutor of the Roman emperor Nero. Nero is known for his egotistical and maniacal ruling style, historically remembered as one of the worst emperors of Rome. We know that he was ignoring the sound advice of his advisor, though, as many of Seneca’s essays and letters survive. For example, the whole of the essay On Anger was written from Seneca to Nero about curbing his impulses.
Before he was advisor to the emperor, Seneca was an up-and-coming politician whose career was derailed by illness and exile, causing him to fall from his wealth and status to a desolate position in society. By the end of his career, he had redeemed what was lost, regaining exorbitant wealth and power. In this latter part of his career, Seneca took to writing, publishing many letters and essays that still survive to this day.
Through his letters, we have incredible access to primary sources of Roman Stoicism— without Seneca, most of what remains comes from one book by Marcus Aurelius, his personal journal that wasn’t meant for public consumption, and one book by Epictetus, which was actually composed by his students. Seneca’s Moral Letters are one of the most important extant works about Stoicism, written from Seneca to his friend Lucilius, whom he encourages in the ways of Stoic philosophy.
Dates: 4 BCE - 65 CE
Foundational Teaching: Time
It is not that time is short, it’s that we waste much of it.
—Seneca, On the Shortness of Life
Seneca frequently wrote about using time wisely and effectively, with time being a pervasive theme in his letters, most notably in his Moral Letters and essay On the Shortness of Life.
What is the proper use of your time, then? Studying philosophy! According to Seneca, you must use your time to study how to live— and then put it into practice. There is nothing more valuable than increasing your goodness which, in turn, increases the goodness in the world.
Using your time to pass on what you have learned is also of vital importance. In On the Shortness of Life, Seneca advises his friend that he should rest and relax in his retirement— but it’s not only to vainly serve his desires and live out his days in opulence. Instead, Seneca advises him to have leisure by studying and adding his own hard-won wisdom to the annals of history. In this way, he is able to fight off the feelings of uselessness that might arise after long periods of rest.
Quotes:
We often suffer more in imagination than in reality. — Moral Letters
Cease to hope and you will cease to fear. — Quoting Hecato in Moral Letters
Life is long, if you know how to use it. — On the Shortness of Life
Epictetus
Epictetus was a slave for the first 30 years of his life, born into servitude under a powerful aide to the Roman emperor (who served in the same court as Seneca). During his enslavement, he was beaten by a master who broke his leg and left him with a permanent limp. During his enslavement, though, Epictetus came into contact with philosophy and studied under the Stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus, who changed Epictetus’ life forever.
When Epictetus was freed, he devoted his life to teaching Stoicism. He became a well-known teacher, with students coming from all over the region to learn from this former slave. He was notoriously tough on his students, often calling them “fools” in his lectures, and clarified a hardline of Stoic ethics.
Epictetus was eventually forced into exile when all of the philosophers in Rome were expelled from the empire, and spent the rest of his life teaching philosophy in Nicopolis, Greece.
Dates: ~50 CE - 135 CE
Foundational Teaching: Dichotomy of Control
The dichotomy of control is discerning between what is in our control and what is not, separating the things that are (internals) from the things that are not (externals).
[Epictetus highlights] the personal benefit of carefully considering, and acting on, what you can control and accepting what you cannot, a concept captured in the phrase dichotomy of control.
— Kai Whiting, Being Better: Stoicism for a World Worth Living in
Epictetus spends much of his Discourses reminding his students what is in their control and what is not. He says that this is the true purpose of the practice of philosophy— to make proper use of “impressions.”
This means to reflect upon every thought, feeling, event, occurrence— everything that happens to you— and determine whether it is inside or outside of your control. If it is outside of your control, then there is no use worrying about it or carrying it with you; the only reasonable solution is to let it go. For the things inside of your control, you must then determine how it is inside of your control— is it yours to feel, yours to take action over, good and useful information for you in some way? Then, you must follow those to their conclusion— feel the feeling, do the action, learn the information.
In this way, you make proper use of impressions and orient your life towards happiness and peace.
Quotes:
We cry to God Almighty, how can we escape this agony? Fool, don’t you have hands? — Discourses
Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.— Discourses
Impression, wait for me a little. Let me see what you are, and what you represent. Let me test you. — Discourses
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius was the philosopher-king that Plato predicted. He was adopted by the son of the emperor, who had also been adopted, so that he was next in line for the Roman throne. Marcus preferred studying to leading and fretted about his fate to come as emperor. Marcus, worrying one night about the weight of the role he was facing, dreamed that he had “shoulders made of ivory,” from which he learned that he would be able to handle the load. From then on, he was prepared for what was to come.
Although Marcus never self-identified as a Stoic, his writings in his personal journal (which we have today as Meditations) ooze Stoicism on every page. We know that he was greatly influenced by the teachings of Epictetus, as his teacher Rusticus gave him a collection of his teachings. We don’t know that Marcus ever came into contact with Seneca’s works, but as emperor less than one hundred years removed from the Stoic advisor, it is likely that he would have experienced them.
During Marcus’ reign, he dealt with a plague and decades of war. In a show of the kind of ruler Marcus was, he sold ornaments and decorations from the palace to pay for the debts of Rome during the plague. Even in war he found ways to be Stoic— his best friend betrayed him and started a revolt, but Marcus wept when he died, knowing he would never be able to repair the bridge that his friend had destroyed.
Dates: 121 CE - 180 CE
Foundational Teaching: Memento Mori
Memento mori, which literally translates to “remember death,” is the Stoic practice of keeping death at the forefront of your thoughts, allowing consciousness of it to shape your actions. This is not to be morbid or gruesome— rather, it intends to give your life an orientation point, always keeping in mind the impermanence of life to inform the here and now.
Marcus Aurelius discusses death frequently in his Meditations, perhaps even more so because they were primarily written in the final years of his life. Death surrounded him for much of his life, between the plague, losing many children, and the seemingly endless wars. Marcus used these tragedies as fuel to remind him of the transience of life and to focus on what he can control— himself— in the only time he can control it— the here and now.
Quotes:
That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees. — Meditations
The best revenge is to not be like that. — Meditations
Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good. — Meditations
Conclusion
Stoicism is a philosophy that has enjoyed a lengthy history and has spread all over the world. Trying to capture that history is too large a task for a book, let alone a single newsletter. Still, these themes and figures are mentioned frequently in these treatises, and it was time to give better context for those who haven’t studied Stoicism, or who are just hearing about it for the first time. This primer will grow and evolve over time, but for now it serves the purpose of a reference point for the mentions of the teachings and figures who populate these pages.
Edited by Jeremy Harr, Logan Hart and Abigail McKay Cherry
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Excellent work! It felt like I had just taken a Stoicism 101 course. It's always worth revisiting the basics of something even when we think we know a ton about something. It opens the way for new perspectives to shine through.
Remarkably relatable and well-presented, Noah. The simplicity of the serenity prayer embodies much of the stoicism philosophy.
Your writing continues to teach me more than I bargained for. And I quite enjoyed the pic of you and Marcus.