tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/stoicism-14185/articlesStoicism – The Conversation2023-11-29T13:37:37Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2134402023-11-29T13:37:37Z2023-11-29T13:37:37ZStoicism and spirituality: A philosopher explains how more Americans’ search for meaning is turning them toward the classics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561703/original/file-20231126-17-wvurn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=137%2C245%2C1977%2C1153&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Web communities have helped the ancient philosophy of Stoicism find fans in a new generation.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/e-book-digital-technology-and-e-learning-royalty-free-image/1254724408?phrase=internet+philosophy&searchscope=image%2Cfilm&adppopup=true">utah778/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Stoicism may be having a renaissance. For centuries, the ancient philosophy that originated in Greece and spread across the Roman Empire was more or less treated as extinct – with the word “stoic” hanging on as shorthand for someone unemotional. But today, with the help of the internet, it’s gaining ground: One of the biggest online communities, <a href="https://dailystoic.com/podcast/">The Daily Stoic</a>, claims to have an email following of over 750,000 subscribers. </p>
<p>Perhaps it’s not so surprising. The United States’ current political climate has parallels to the last few centuries B.C. in ancient Rome, home of notable Stoics like the <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-life-gives-you-lemons-4-stoic-tips-for-getting-through-lockdown-from-epictetus-166487">the philosopher Epictetus</a>, a former slave, and the emperor Marcus Aurelius. During this period of instability, including the fall of the Roman Republic, Stoicism <a href="https://store.doverpublications.com/0486433595.html">helped its practitioners find community</a>, meaning and tranquility. </p>
<p>Today, too, society faces widespread feelings <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/05/03/new-surgeon-general-advisory-raises-alarm-about-devastating-impact-epidemic-loneliness-isolation-united-states.html">of isolation</a>, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/10/51percent-of-young-americans-say-they-feel-down-depressed-or-hopeless.html">depression</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2020.08.014">and anxiety</a>. Meanwhile, more and more people are looking for answers outside of mainstream religion. According to a 2022 Gallup Poll, <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/1690/religion.aspx">21% of Americans now say they have no religious affiliation</a>.</p>
<p>Riding this resurgence of interest in Stoicism, I designed <a href="https://search.asu.edu/profile/92871">a college philosophy class</a> that covers both theory and practice. When I ask students why they enrolled, I hear not only a genuine interest in the subject but also a desire to find meaning, purpose and personal development.</p>
<h2>Core principles</h2>
<p>Ancient Stoicism aimed to be a complete philosophy encompassing ethics, physics and logic. Yet most modern Stoics focus primarily on ethics, and they typically adopt four Stoic principles. </p>
<p>The first is that virtue is the only or highest good, including the cardinal virtues of wisdom, temperance, courage and justice. Everything apart from virtue – including wealth, health and reputation – might be nice to have, but they do not directly contribute to human flourishing. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561708/original/file-20231126-21-zbsxfn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A bust of a man draped in robes, with short, curly hair and a beard." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561708/original/file-20231126-21-zbsxfn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561708/original/file-20231126-21-zbsxfn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561708/original/file-20231126-21-zbsxfn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561708/original/file-20231126-21-zbsxfn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561708/original/file-20231126-21-zbsxfn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1180&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561708/original/file-20231126-21-zbsxfn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1180&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561708/original/file-20231126-21-zbsxfn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1180&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marcus Aurelius: not just an emperor but a Stoic philosopher.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marcus_Aurelius_Glyptothek_Munich.jpg">Bibi Saint-Pol/Glyptothek/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Second, people ought to live in accordance with nature or reason. This principle reflects the Stoic belief that the universe exhibits a rational order, so we ought to align our beliefs and actions with eternal principles. Living in accordance with nature also reveals <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/6367/meditations-by-marcus-aurelius-a-new-translation-by-gregory-hays/9781588361738">the interconnectedness of all things</a>, showing how humans are part of a larger whole.</p>
<p>Third, a person can control only their own actions – not external events. Epictetus laid out this dichotomy in the opening sentence of <a href="https://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html">The Enchiridion</a>, a collection of his core teachings compiled by his student Arrian: “Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.”</p>
<p>The fourth principle is that thoughts about external events are often the source of discontentment or distress – a view that <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/A_New_Guide_to_Rational_Living.html?id=3JB9sLEV-SoC">has influenced modern cognitive behavioral therapy</a>. Again, this idea comes <a href="https://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html">directly from Epictetus</a>: “Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things.”</p>
<p>Taken together, these principles form the bedrock of modern Stoicism, which aims to provide a coherent philosophy of life. Its hope is that once the practitioner accepts they are not entirely in control, they start building resilience and reducing anxiety. Not only is each individual the architect of their emotional life, but people can shape their own judgments in ways that are conducive to greater inner peace.</p>
<h2>Stoicism in practice</h2>
<p>In Discourses, Epictetus unequivocally states that <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/discourses-fragments-handbook-9780199595181?cc=us&lang=en&">study is not enough</a> – in order to become virtuous, a person must couple study with practice. “In theory, there is nothing to restrain us from drawing the consequences of what we have been taught,” he noted, “whereas in life there are many things that pull us off course.”</p>
<p>In other words, philosophy is not only an intellectual endeavor but a practical and spiritual one: a way of life designed to move practitioners toward the Stoic conception of the good. Learning to cultivate core Stoic principles involves certain <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Philosophy+as+a+Way+of+Life%3A+Spiritual+Exercises+from+Socrates+to+Foucault-p-9780631180333">spiritual exercises</a>.</p>
<p>My class incorporates a variety of these exercises so students can get a taste of Stoicism in practice. One is the “view from above,” which encourages the practitioner to imagine their life and certain situations from a bird’s-eye view, putting the insignificance of their current troubles in perspective. </p>
<p>Another is “negative visualization”: contemplating the absence of something we value. Instead of worrying about losing something, a person intentionally meditates on its absence, with the intention of fostering gratitude and contentment. When doing this exercise in class, students have imagined the loss of a possession, a scholarship or even a beloved pet.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561709/original/file-20231126-15-wvurn7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A tan and gray illustration of a man in simple clothing, seated with a crutch by his side, writing and looking over his shoulder." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561709/original/file-20231126-15-wvurn7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561709/original/file-20231126-15-wvurn7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1061&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561709/original/file-20231126-15-wvurn7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1061&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561709/original/file-20231126-15-wvurn7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1061&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561709/original/file-20231126-15-wvurn7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1333&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561709/original/file-20231126-15-wvurn7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561709/original/file-20231126-15-wvurn7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1333&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An illustration of Epictetus, likely drawn by William Sonmans and engraved by Michael Burghers, that served as frontispiece for a translation of Epictetus’ Enchiridion, printed in 1715.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Epicteti_Enchiridion_Latinis_versibus_adumbratum_(Oxford_1715)_frontispiece.jpg">John Adams Library at the Boston Public Library/Aristeas/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A third exercise is journaling to plan and review one’s day. Reflecting on thoughts and actions allows a more objective, rational way to judge whether someone is living in accordance with their principles.</p>
<p>Once the exercises are incorporated with theory, Stoicism can become a type of spiritual project. <a href="https://global.oup.com/ukhe/product/discourses-fragments-handbook-9780199595181?cc=us&lang=en&">As Epictetus wrote</a>, “For just as wood is the material of the carpenter, and bronze that of the sculptor, the art of living has each individual’s own life as its material.”</p>
<h2>The way of the prokopton</h2>
<p>So what does it mean to be a practicing Stoic – a “prokopton,” in Greek?</p>
<p>For both ancient and modern practitioners, Stoicism <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-stoicism-influenced-music-from-the-french-renaissance-to-pink-floyd-181701">is more than a set of abstract ideas</a>. It is a set of guiding principles that permeate all aspects of one’s life. The goal is progress, not perfection – and exploring Stoic ideas alongside others is encouraged.</p>
<p>Today, there are at least three relatively robust Stoic communities online: <a href="https://dailystoic.com/">The Daily Stoic</a>, <a href="https://modernstoicism.com/">Modern Stoicism</a> and <a href="https://collegeofstoicphilosophers.org/">the College of Stoic Philosophers</a>.</p>
<p>By having dedicated communities, a guiding framework and distinctive spiritual exercises, parallels between Stoicism and many mainstream religions are undeniable. For modern people looking for such things, Stoicism may <a href="https://modernstoicism.com/providence-or-atoms-atoms-donald-robertson/">serve as a surrogate</a> or complement to mainstream religion. People today tend to find the original Stoics’ notions about physics and theology implausible, but apart from those ideas, the core principles of modern Stoicism can be palatable to people who identify with <a href="https://howtolive.life/episode/045-stoicism-in-everyday-life-with-william-irvine">contemporary faith traditions</a> – or none.</p>
<p>The ancient Greeks believed that a philosophy of life is critical for human flourishing. Without a guiding ethos, they feared, individuals are likely to lead unstructured and unproductive lives, to pursue superficial pleasures and to feel that their lives lack purpose. Stoicism offered <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-stoicism-of-roman-philosophers-can-help-us-deal-with-depression-75593">a path for some to follow</a> – then, and now.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213440/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sandra Woien does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Stoicism isn’t just a set of ideas; it’s meant to be put into practice. The ancient philosophy is finding new fans through online communities.Sandra Woien, Associate Teaching Professor, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1974202023-03-16T19:12:12Z2023-03-16T19:12:12ZFriday essay: a lament for the lost art of letter-writing – a radical art form reflecting ‘the full catastrophe of life’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514610/original/file-20230310-24-eiamcv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5745%2C3359&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Suzy Hazelwood/Pexels</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>Letters did not count [as writing]. A woman might write letters while sitting by her father’s sick-bed. She could write them by the fire while the men talked without disturbing them. The strange thing is, I thought, turning over the pages of Dorothy’s letters, what a gift that untaught and solitary girl had for the framing of a sentence, for the fashioning of a scene. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>— Virginia Woolf, <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/a-room-of-ones-own-9780241436288">A Room of One’s Own</a> </p>
<p>Last year I went to the funeral of a friend with whom I shared a house in Melbourne in the early 1990s. While I and my other housemates went on to the full array of box-ticking life experiences – children, careers, relationships, houses – our friend was diagnosed with an aggressive form of <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-multiple-sclerosis-32662">multiple sclerosis</a> in her early twenties. When she died, we had not heard her voice for many years.</p>
<p>Of all the eulogies at her funeral, the most arresting was a letter she’d written at 23, read aloud by a former housemate, Delia. Our friend had been travelling at the time; negotiating a fledgling relationship, digesting the reality of her diagnosis, preparing for the suddenly precarious unfolding of her life. </p>
<p>She hadn’t spoken for so long but here in this letter, this imprint of her voice on paper, she sprang suddenly into life. Funny, irreverent, honest, scared: we could hear her. The occasion was sad; but the letter was joyful. </p>
<p>I had forgotten what a powerful time capsule a letter could be.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/post-apocalypse-the-end-of-daily-letter-deliveries-is-in-sight-201094">Post apocalypse: the end of daily letter deliveries is in sight</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Gen X-ers occupy a distinctly precious cultural position – straddling the analogue past of letter writing and the hyper-digital present of TikTok and Instagram. One of my earliest school memories is of learning how to transcribe an address onto an envelope in the form required by post offices (carefully indented at every line, return address on the back). It seems almost archaic now. </p>
<p>We may not have been “the last generation of devoted letter writers” – that title goes to our parents’ or grandparents’ generation – but letter-writing was still a necessary, carefully taught skill when we were growing up. </p>
<p>It was the normal way to communicate with grandparents, international pen-pals, and school friends who had moved to the country. We all sat down at school camp on the first night and wrote our parents a letter, Camp Granada style, supervised by prowling teachers who made sure we gave our parents a worthy account.</p>
<p>I remember too how important it was, as a young adult in the world of pre-internet travel, to land in a far-flung place, track down the <a href="https://www.travellerspoint.com/forum.cfm?thread=4494">Poste Restante</a> and find miraculously waiting for you – as though your arrival was predestined – a handful of pale blue aerograms, enscripted with miniscule, space-saving writing. Letters from home. </p>
<p>In momentary deferral to the anti-hoarding gods, I recently threw out a tranche of these aerograms, sent to me when I travelled India as a 19-year-old. I not only curse myself when I think of this now, but I feel an actual pain in my chest. What insights have I lost into my former self, my family and my friends as a result?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515056/original/file-20230314-2601-qqk3ao.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Young woman looking at camera, river and buildings behind her" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515056/original/file-20230314-2601-qqk3ao.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515056/original/file-20230314-2601-qqk3ao.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515056/original/file-20230314-2601-qqk3ao.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515056/original/file-20230314-2601-qqk3ao.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515056/original/file-20230314-2601-qqk3ao.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515056/original/file-20230314-2601-qqk3ao.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515056/original/file-20230314-2601-qqk3ao.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=548&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author in India, aged 19 – when letters from home were miraculous and important arrivals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The human condition</h2>
<p>The disappearance of letter-writing from Western cultural life is such a recent phenomenon that I don’t dare proclaim its death. From Abelard and Heloise’s <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-letters-of-abelard-and-heloise-9780140448993">12th-century love missives</a>, dense with biblical references but no less dense with longing, to <a href="https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/art-and-stories/stories/van-goghs-letters">the letters</a> of Vincent Van Gogh to his brother Theo, it’s hard to imagine how we might have made sense of the human condition without the insights gleaned from letters.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515059/original/file-20230314-2080-scd0kg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A letter with writing and a sketch of a house" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515059/original/file-20230314-2080-scd0kg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515059/original/file-20230314-2080-scd0kg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=269&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515059/original/file-20230314-2080-scd0kg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=269&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515059/original/file-20230314-2080-scd0kg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=269&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515059/original/file-20230314-2080-scd0kg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515059/original/file-20230314-2080-scd0kg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515059/original/file-20230314-2080-scd0kg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Van Gogh’s letters to his brother Theo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons/Van Gogh Museum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What would we know of the interior worlds of artists and writers, scientists and politicians, sisters and friends and lovers? What would we know about life itself? Or, as importantly, about <em>how to live</em>? In the first century AD, Seneca articulated his philosophy of <a href="https://theconversation.com/stoicism-5-0-the-unlikely-21st-century-reboot-of-an-ancient-philosophy-80986">stoicism</a> via a series of 124 “<a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius">moral letters</a>” to his young friend Lucilius. </p>
<p>These letters are only nominally a private correspondence between two men; in fact, they were written for a much larger readership that might benefit from Seneca’s solutions to the moral dilemmas of living in the world. </p>
<p>Even if one side of the conversation (Lucilius’s) remained unheard, the letter, as a form, lent a sense of reciprocity and intimacy to Seneca’s words – it enabled him to speak to many as though he were speaking to one. With titles such as “On saving time”, “On old age and death”, “On the relativity of fame”, “On care of health and peace of mind”, Seneca’s letters continue to resonate 2,000 years later. </p>
<p>Rainer Maria Rilke’s ten <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/letters-to-a-young-poet-9780241252055">Letters to a Young Poet</a>, written in 1903-08 and published posthumously in 1929, provided creative guidance to his young recipient, a Czech poet and military student. These letters are famous for Rilke’s inordinately gentle manner, his tenderness and warmth. </p>
<p>Yet it seems that, in breathing a philosophy of art and life into the ear of his young admirer, Rilke also breathes it affirmingly into himself, and into the generations privy to the correspondence since. I noticed traces of his philosophy of creativity – which emphasises patience and attentiveness to the small things of life – in a 1961 letter from Patrick White to Thea Astley I recently read:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Read, think & listen to silence, & shell the peas … concentrating on the work in hand until you know what it is to be a pea — and drudge at the school, & sleep with your husband & bring up your child. That is what I mean when I say “living” …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Unlike the essay or the novel, letters facilitate a kind of collapsing of low and high, profound and profane, the life of domesticity and the life of the spirit. They are not master accounts of ourselves, with all the incidentals written out.</p>
<p>Writer Maria Popova, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/09/floating-worlds-edward-goreys-never-before-seen-letters/245155/">commenting on</a> the mid-century correspondence of illustrator <a href="https://www.edwardgoreyhouse.org/">Edward Gorey</a> and author <a href="https://library.sdsu.edu/scua/sdsu-oral-histories/neumeyer">Peter F. Neumeyer</a>, says the two men wrote to each other of everything “from metaphysics to pancake recipes”. </p>
<p>This democratic levelling of subject matter is perhaps nowhere more evident than in letters, where hierarchies of value don’t prevail as they do in more authoritatively literary forms: the traditional novel, for instance, in which everything must gear toward thematic and narrative resolution. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515108/original/file-20230314-166-o0riwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515108/original/file-20230314-166-o0riwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515108/original/file-20230314-166-o0riwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515108/original/file-20230314-166-o0riwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515108/original/file-20230314-166-o0riwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515108/original/file-20230314-166-o0riwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515108/original/file-20230314-166-o0riwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515108/original/file-20230314-166-o0riwe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Edward Gorey and collaborator Peter F. Nuemeyer wrote to each other of ‘everything from metaphysics to pancake recipes’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey and Peter F. Neumeyer</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Letting the real world in</h2>
<p>Megan O’Grady, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/t-magazine/literary-letter-collections.html">in the New York Times</a>, has described letters as “leaky” in the way they allow a seepage of the real world to occur: “the baby wakes from the nap and cries; the air-raid siren sounds; the social mores and psychodynamics of other eras filter in”. In correspondence, even the rhetorical devices of transition, the elegant segues that smooth a jagged change of subject, are largely dispensed with. </p>
<p>No one, writing a letter, agonises over the wording of a sentence that links two paragraphs. A trail of unexplained ellipses has a particular function in a letter – to break a chain of thought, to attest to bodily movement in temporal space: a kettle being put on, a doorbell answered, a nappy changed. </p>
<p>My friend Delia, reading over letters from her friends in the early 1990s when she was a student in America, said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was funny reading these letters back. Sometimes they would be written over days, or even weeks, they’d stop and start and stop again: “Sorry, got distracted with something. Anyway …” Or be continually updated: “Well, I finally got a phone call from X, you won’t believe what happened …” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>They were provisional, real-time, patched-together accounts of life as we lived it, as it occurred, on the spot. An unspooling of self onto the page in real time.</p>
<p>Or selves perhaps; each letter, each recipient, facilitating an adjustment of the self, a tweak: there’s the correspondent we make laugh, the correspondent we confide in, the correspondent to whom we offer advice and comfort. Like a diary, a letter can function as a “chronicle of [one’s] hours and days”, but because it is, in essence, a two-way communication – an ongoing, unfinished conversation – a letter invokes a relationship so it needs to be sensitive to the reader in ways a diary need not. </p>
<p>It needs to configure itself for entertainment value. It’s one of the few writing forms that allows the mind of the writer to roam freely, independently, and yet actively connect with an attentive, and presumably sympathetic, reader: a <em>known</em> reader. </p>
<p>The materiality of letters sets them apart from today’s electronic equivalents. Letters are disarmingly tangible when we chance upon them in a forgotten box or tin or bundle: we might have forgotten them, but they didn’t cease to exist. They offer curious subtexts too, not least to do with the presence of the human hand on paper. </p>
<h2>A different kind of utterance</h2>
<p>I have in my possession pages of my late grandmother’s “scribble” – a self-deprecating term she used (for her handwriting or for the thoughts her letters contained? I was never sure which). </p>
<p>Her backwards-scooping scrawl carries with it her personality somehow – occasionally, I see an echo of it in my own handwriting, a certain soft flourish in an “h” or an “n”. I remember the pale blue pages on which her letters were written, and my habit of placing a heavy-ruled piece of paper beneath my own when I wrote back to her, to ensure my lines were straight. </p>
<p>Particularly precious in my family is a letter written to my father as a little boy by his own father, stationed on an air base in New Guinea in 1943. The letter, on tiny yellow paper, is written in flawless copperplate – a skill my grandfather was particularly proud of, having left school at 12 – and the front of the envelope is illustrated with an image of Ginger Meggs, hand-drawn in coloured ink. </p>
<p>Returning after the war, my grandfather was a difficult, traumatised man, but in his letter there’s a glimpse of the loving young father and husband he was before: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Dear Barry</p>
<p>Just a few lines from your Daddy hoping it finds you well; and I also trust that your little yacht arrived alright; and I do hope it sails well for it has really big sails though I think you shall be able to manage it alright after Mum has fixed it all up for you […] Now Barry I guess you are wondering when I shall be home, well I really thought that I would be home for Xmas but now it looks like it shall be early in the new year so I am hoping I get back in time for your birthday for if I do, we shall sure have a birthday party, won’t we, with just you and Leslie and Mumie and me …“</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the last years of my own father’s life, this tiny hand-inked letter had pride of place in a glass display case in his residential care unit: a beautiful relic, the ephemeral trapped on paper. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515063/original/file-20230314-16-829hle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515063/original/file-20230314-16-829hle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515063/original/file-20230314-16-829hle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515063/original/file-20230314-16-829hle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515063/original/file-20230314-16-829hle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515063/original/file-20230314-16-829hle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515063/original/file-20230314-16-829hle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515063/original/file-20230314-16-829hle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This letter, sent to the author’s father by his father, from a New Guinea air base, is ‘particularly precious’ in her family.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It reminds me of a similarly gentle, loving letter written by John Steinbeck to his son in 1958, upon his son’s announcement that he had fallen in love:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Dear Thom:</p>
<p>First – if you are in love – that’s a good thing — that’s about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don’t let anyone make it small or light to you.</p>
<p>Second – There are several kinds of love […] The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn’t know you had.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Did Steinbeck speak as honestly and tenderly to his son in person? Perhaps, I don’t know. But it’s possible that letters allowed a different kind of utterance for "strong, silent” men of past generations: a benevolent “father-tongue” (lower case) which enabled them to shed, if momentarily, the practised hardness of masculinity. </p>
<p>I know that my grandfather’s letter contains a grace and sweetness that was not present in person. In person, his expression of love was to teach my father how to box. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515064/original/file-20230314-2366-7wgker.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a letter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515064/original/file-20230314-2366-7wgker.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515064/original/file-20230314-2366-7wgker.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515064/original/file-20230314-2366-7wgker.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515064/original/file-20230314-2366-7wgker.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515064/original/file-20230314-2366-7wgker.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515064/original/file-20230314-2366-7wgker.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515064/original/file-20230314-2366-7wgker.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author’s grandfather’s letter contains ‘a grace and sweetness that was not present in person’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hold-the-post-theres-no-such-thing-as-a-dead-letter-38581">Hold the post: there's no such thing as a dead letter</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Famous love letters</h2>
<p>Love letters, of course, occupy a place of their own within the “genre”, if it can be called a genre. The 5,000 or so <a href="https://www.npr.org/2011/07/21/138467808/stieglitz-and-okeeffe-their-love-and-life-in-letters">letters between Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Steiglitz</a>, penned across 30 years, provide a window onto the mutual creative inspiration that existed between the two artists, but also include searing love letters that testify to an enduring sensuality. </p>
<p>“Dearest,” writes Georgia: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>— my body is simply crazy with wanting you – If you don’t come tomorrow – I don’t see how I can wait for you – I wonder if your body wants mine the way mine wants yours – the kisses – the hotness – the wetness – all melting together – the being held so tight that it hurts – the strangle and the struggle.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515416/original/file-20230315-28-i6oy82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515416/original/file-20230315-28-i6oy82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515416/original/file-20230315-28-i6oy82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515416/original/file-20230315-28-i6oy82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515416/original/file-20230315-28-i6oy82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515416/original/file-20230315-28-i6oy82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515416/original/file-20230315-28-i6oy82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515416/original/file-20230315-28-i6oy82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=954&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Georgia O'Keeffe photographed by Alfred Stieglitz in 1918.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On a voyeuristic level, the love letters of the famous gratify our curiosity – what went on between these two giants of the screen/literary world/art scene? Were they (are they?) like us in their lusts and their pettinesses? Often, yes, they <em>are</em> like us – we’re reassured by their broken promises and bickerings and insecurities. </p>
<p>They say things they shouldn’t, embarrassing things, things they later regret. <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-tug-of-the-tale-steven-carroll-reimagines-the-life-and-times-of-t-s-eliot-and-his-first-wife-vivienne-177619">T.S. Eliot</a> later disavowed <a href="https://tseliot.com/the-eliot-hale-letters">his fervent love letters</a> to American speech and drama teacher Emily Hale – they “were the letters of an hallucinated man,” he said. Nevertheless, these letters have an ardour, a heart-on-the-sleeve earnestness, that reveals a different side to the cool modernist poet, a side that was warm-blooded, ruled by the heart, even, possibly, vulnerable.</p>
<p>Letters are immediate; we write them from inside the moment, and so the immediate, the moment, becomes the truth. Their vigour, and their value, lies in this unedited, uneditable quality: they document us, trap fleeting moments in glass. We might even say things that bare our souls. “I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia,” wrote Vita Sackville-West famously to Virginia Woolf in one such moment in 1926. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515112/original/file-20230314-30-sz23ty.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a postmarked letter addressed to Miss Emily Hale" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515112/original/file-20230314-30-sz23ty.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515112/original/file-20230314-30-sz23ty.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515112/original/file-20230314-30-sz23ty.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515112/original/file-20230314-30-sz23ty.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515112/original/file-20230314-30-sz23ty.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=634&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515112/original/file-20230314-30-sz23ty.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=634&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515112/original/file-20230314-30-sz23ty.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=634&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Poet T.S. Eliot later disavowed his love letters to Emily Hale as the work ‘of an hallucinated man’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ashley Gamarello, Princeton University Library</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some of the funniest/“dirtiest” letters on the public record are James Joyce’s <a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/02/02/james-joyces-love-letters-dirty-little-fuckbird/">letters to his wife Nora Barnacle</a>, in which he joyously catalogues her repertoire of farts: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>big fat fellows, long windy ones, quick little merry cracks and a lot of tiny little naughty farties ending in a long gush from your hole … I think I would know Nora’s fart anywhere. I think I could pick hers out in a roomful of farting women.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The publication of the letters in 1975 upset Joyce’s grandson, but the correspondence reveals a healthy mutual sexual relationship, free of any false social pieties and, certainly, of embarrassment. </p>
<p>The love letters of famous writers have a pith and poetry the rest of us might not be equal to, but even the simplest love letters, if they’re heartfelt, speak of who we are, or once were, and how we affected other people. They are testament to the risks we take to express deep and difficult feelings; the things we might not have been able to say in the flesh.</p>
<p>My first boyfriend says he wrote me a love letter when we were 16 and I sent it back to him with the spelling corrected in red pen. I can’t remember the spirit with which I embarked on this particular revision, but it’s retrospectively both very funny and an insight into my own priggishness. Nor can I imagine making such amendments now using tracked changes – somehow I think it would be less funny and more tragic. </p>
<p>I have in my possession other love letters from the pre-internet age – not many, a few. They embarrassed me, mainly, at the time, but I’m glad I’ve kept them – they are charged with a force that cuts through time, and connects me with myself as a younger, if more callous, person.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/weaponised-irony-after-fictionalising-elizabeth-macarthurs-life-kate-grenville-edits-her-letters-180335">'Weaponised irony': after fictionalising Elizabeth Macarthur's life, Kate Grenville edits her letters</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Email and autocorrect</h2>
<p>And while famous love letters of the past are collected, collated and curated for public consumption, I’m not sure a 21st-century romantic email correspondence will have the same longevity. For one thing, emails are less spontaneous: if only because they are infinitely revisable, deletable – as well as easily forwardable (accidentally or otherwise). </p>
<p>They don’t contain the mark of the person, the pecularities of handwriting or, yes, spelling mistakes – autocorrect puts out these interesting little fires. Writes O’Grady: “It’s hard to imagine that in 50 years we’ll be picking up The Collected Emails of Zadie Smith.” </p>
<p>Email won’t ever be a replacement for the unfolding, from a wadded envelope, of several pages of lovingly tended text. For me, at least. I use email for collegiate communications, friendly transactions, social to-ings and fro-ings. While it might provide the last vestige of formality in an increasingly informal communications world, email remains an inadequate substitute for letters. </p>
<p>Delayed gratification – part of the frisson of a traditional correspondence – is a bad portent when it comes to emails. It’s easy to interpret even the briefest email silence as unwillingness or neglect on the part of the recipient. O’Grady writes: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Email – already an old-fashioned form – isn’t really the electronic replacement of the letter but a different mode of communication entirely: fleeter, tactical, somehow both more and less disposable. It is unwise to commit too much of oneself to electronic code, which lives on in some ether or another, unflung into the fireplace.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Text messages are semiotically interesting in the way they codify language and narrative, but their idiom is brevity. You can flirt in a series of text messages, you can also argue, but you can’t reflect the way you might in a letter; it’s easy to send a platitude or establish a rapport in a text, not so easy to tease out a philosophy.</p>
<p>Letter-writing is a commitment of time and an offering of trust, both an indulgence and an act of generosity. It must trust that what is being related will be accepted. It must assume that its confidences will be honoured.</p>
<h2>‘The stuff of life’</h2>
<p>As a writer looking for a literary device with which to capture the voice of a troubled female poet in 1960s Melbourne, first-person narrative didn’t work. I tried and got nowhere. It couldn’t satisfactorily make visible the ruptures and randomness of my character’s life, its trivial details and entertaining side-notes: the nappies she had to run off and attend to; the soggy egg cartons glimpsed dishearteningly through a window; the clothesline she feared being garrotted by. </p>
<p><em>If it’s not doing something to further the narrative</em>, goes the traditional novel-writing wisdom, <em>cut it out</em>. But I wanted to put in the things that didn’t further the narrative: the ephemeral things, apparently unimportant, that are actually the stuff of life. </p>
<p>Letter-writing allows this <em>stuff</em> to be present. Perhaps it’s the only traditional writing form that does, and it gave me a credible reason for putting the trivial, the small, the fleeting into my story. And when I did, to my surprise, my character came to life: she became spontaneous and real and began to speak in a language and voice that seemed authentic.</p>
<p>In her wonderful 1988 essay about writing and motherhood, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/22/books/the-hand-that-rocks-the-cradle-writes-the-book.html">The Fisherwoman’s Daughter</a>, Ursula Le Guin used the term “mother tongue” to describe an “authentic” women’s language. The mother tongue, she says, speaks with intimacy, proximity, connectivity; it’s the voice with which we talk to a neighbour over the fence, or to our children when they come home late, or to our partners when it’s their turn to take out the bins, or our friends when we’re trying to make them laugh over a drink. </p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/469310">Its power</a> is not in dividing but in binding … We all know it by heart. John have you got your umbrella I think it’s going to rain. Can you come play with me? If I told you once I told you a hundred times … O what am I going to do? … Pass the soy sauce please. Oh, shit … You look like what the cat dragged in …</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515422/original/file-20230315-28-sf4se8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman holding a cup of tea." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515422/original/file-20230315-28-sf4se8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515422/original/file-20230315-28-sf4se8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515422/original/file-20230315-28-sf4se8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515422/original/file-20230315-28-sf4se8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515422/original/file-20230315-28-sf4se8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515422/original/file-20230315-28-sf4se8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515422/original/file-20230315-28-sf4se8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ursula Le Guin in 2001.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Benjamin Brink/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In its use of the mother tongue, correspondence actually corresponds with the ways we interact with people in our lives, as well as with the spontaneities of speech itself. It doesn’t pretend the writer is not a real person, speaking in an authoritative void, like an oracle, to untethered, disembodied others. It allows the full catastrophe of life to be present and visible. </p>
<p>Researching the letters of women poets in preparation for working on <a href="https://www.wakefieldpress.com.au/product.php?productid=1781">my novel</a>, I realised letter-writing has always been socially acceptable for women in ways the “master” forms of literary production – the novel, the poem – haven’t been. So long as they were literate, women have always written letters – as an essential form of communication and self-expression, but also because writing letters didn’t disturb the status quo or conflict with domestic or mothering responsibilities. </p>
<p>A woman didn’t need to consciously conceive of herself as a “writer” in order to be an avid letter-writer. And a woman didn’t need a “room of her own” in order to write her letters; she could write them among the potato peels and bills and children’s laundry. Quietly, (apparently) benignly, women have for centuries been able to refine and experiment with their writing practice under the guise of merely “writing a letter”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515111/original/file-20230314-20-ui8che.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515111/original/file-20230314-20-ui8che.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515111/original/file-20230314-20-ui8che.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515111/original/file-20230314-20-ui8che.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515111/original/file-20230314-20-ui8che.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515111/original/file-20230314-20-ui8che.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=670&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515111/original/file-20230314-20-ui8che.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=670&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515111/original/file-20230314-20-ui8che.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=670&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman didn’t need to think of herself as ‘a writer’ to write letters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cottonbro Studio/Pexels</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So perhaps letter-writing has functioned as a kind of ruse or subterfuge for women: a way of writing without seeming to have “unseemly” writerly ambitions. I think of my grandmother’s characterisation of her letters as “scribble”. </p>
<p>It was not the done thing for a woman of her generation to publicise her accomplishments, but I knew <em>she knew</em> she was a good writer, with lovely handwriting, and a gentle and responsive style. Calling her writing “scribble”, I realised, was a way of repudiating the criticism of thinking she had something to say, but getting on with the job of saying it nevertheless. </p>
<p>As I wrote my character’s letters to her sister, I became more and more convinced that letter-writing has functioned as a radical, maybe even revolutionary, writing form for women. This is because, on the one hand, it was considered so socially unthreatening that it went under the radar, and, on the other, because it allowed the small daily realities of women’s lives to be made visible. </p>
<p>It could be written from within the midst of their lives – not separate, not in a garret room or writer’s hut — but right there, on the kitchen table amongst the scraps and the bills and the children’s toys. </p>
<p>Gregory Kratzmann, editor of Australian poet Gwen Harwood’s voluminous correspondence, says Harwood wrote her correspondence in precisely this way: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>She wrote letters quickly and with great facility, often when she was surrounded by domestic activity […] sometimes three or more long letters in the same day […] the activity of writing was an essential part of living […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The prolific 19th-century novelist Margaret Oliphant used this same “kitchen-table” approach to write her novels – and there were nearly one hundred of them. Far from imperilling her progress, she felt that </p>
<blockquote>
<p>her writing profited, from the difficult, obscure, chancy connection between the art work and emotional/manual/managerial complex of skills and tasks called “housework,” and that to sever that connection would put the writing itself at risk, would make it, in her word, unnatural.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If letter-writing can tolerate interruption, distraction, diversion, it stands to reason that novel writing can too. And poetry writing. And even philosophical treatise writing. Perhaps being interrupted is not so terrible nor so damaging to artistic creation as we have always thought. Who says that the uninterrupted thought is better than the interrupted one?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gwen-harwood-was-one-of-australias-finest-poets-she-was-also-one-of-the-most-subversive-183637">Gwen Harwood was one of Australia's finest poets – she was also one of the most subversive</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘The framing of a sentence’</h2>
<p>I have never had an inviolate writing space of my own. Everything I have written has been interrupted constantly by children and domestic demands. I stop to remedy problems; attend to outbursts of screaming; acquire and prepare drawing materials; find lost books; answer spelling enquiries; listen to an imaginative narrative just written; lace on rollerblades; deal with insistent lamentations that “There’s nothing to eat”. </p>
<p>My writing space has been fundamentally accessible to my children: they remove pens and papers and post-it notes, use my desk as a place to apply nail-polish, leave tell-tale trails of crumbs and rings from glasses. Yes, it’s annoying. Does it make my writing worse? No. Sometimes it makes it better.</p>
<p>Writing my character, contemplating all this, I thought – dare I say it? – that perhaps Virginia Woolf was wrong. Perhaps “a room of one’s own” has never been necessary to the writing of prose. Perhaps the seeds of a different kind of writing practice, one that served women’s realities and responsibilities better, can be glimpsed in the practice of letter writing. </p>
<p>Correspondence has always enabled women to become caught up, immersed, in the moment of the work, yet remain equally available and connected to life around them. </p>
<p>Thus it deserves our attention, even as it fades from view as a writing practice. To return to Virginia Woolf’s silently observed letter-writing girl at the beginning of this essay: “[W]hat a gift that untaught and solitary girl had for the framing of a sentence, for the fashioning of a scene.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197420/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edwina Preston received funding from the Australia Council for her latest published novel.</span></em></p>Edwina Preston pays tribute to the humble letter: from literary love letters to philosophical lessons to cherished family heirlooms. Letters impart lessons, reveal character – and are a form of art.Edwina Preston, PhD Candidate, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1983072023-02-06T19:04:16Z2023-02-06T19:04:16Z3 reasons not to be a Stoic (but try Nietzsche instead)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506023/original/file-20230124-17-yn5333.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=317%2C23%2C3634%2C1970&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For an ancient philosophy, Stoicism is doing extremely well in 2023. Quotes from the Stoic philosopher and Roman emperor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius">Marcus Aurelius</a> litter my Instagram feed; you can find expert advice from modern Stoic thinkers on <a href="https://donaldrobertson.substack.com/p/stoicism-and-leadership-9f3859852069">leadership</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/24-stoicism-and-love/id1574044351?i=1000551023380">relationships</a>, and, well, just about anything. </p>
<p>It is hard to imagine <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno_of_Citium">Zeno</a>, the Athenian philosopher who founded Stoicism, or his Roman counterparts <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/seneca/">Seneca</a>, Marcus Aurelius and <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epictetus/">Epictetus</a> existing in today’s world. And yet here they are, quoted and debated on every corner.</p>
<p>This is, in part, due to international authors such as <a href="https://ryanholiday.net/">Ryan Holiday</a> and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31423245-how-to-be-a-stoic?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_9">Massimo Pigliucci</a> and Australia’s Brigid Delaney. Each of these has their own approach to Stoicism. Holiday, a former marketing executive for American Apparel, focuses on the four Stoic virtues: courage, temperance (or moderation), justice and wisdom. Pigliucci, an academic based in New York, is interested in Stoic practices. Journalist Delaney, author of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62678735-reasons-not-to-worry?ref=nav_sb_ss_2_14">Reasons not to worry: how to be stoic in chaotic times</a>, is in search of a framework for navigating life.</p>
<p>Holiday has probably been most influential in taking Stoicism to a wide audience. His new book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/60018575-discipline-is-destiny">Discipline is Destiny: the power of self control</a> is a New York Times bestseller. He runs a very successful Instagram page called the dailystoic, and has opened a book store in his home state of Texas.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stoicism-5-0-the-unlikely-21st-century-reboot-of-an-ancient-philosophy-80986">Stoicism 5.0: The unlikely 21st century reboot of an ancient philosophy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It is incredible to see such public interest in ancient philosophy. As a philosopher myself, this is inspiring. There are many academic philosophers trying to break through to a public audience. We want to demonstrate the usefulness of philosophy to everyday life. Most philosophers and philosophies fail to do this. Yet if the success of these authors is anything to go by, millions of people are interested in the Stoic way of life.</p>
<p>But there are problems with Stoicism, both in its modern and ancient forms. I am not a fan. Here are my three reasons to resist Stoicism, and also an alternative approach to the some of the same problems it addresses I have borrowed from Friedrich Nietzsche, the great 19th century German philosopher.</p>
<h2>Passivity</h2>
<p>Holiday, Pigliucci and Delaney agree: one of the most important and useful aspects of Stoicism is what is called the “dichotomy of control”. This involves understanding that there are things you can control and things you can’t. Happiness can be achieved by focusing only (literally – <em>only</em>) on the things you can control and letting go of everything else.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506027/original/file-20230124-13-ok5cmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506027/original/file-20230124-13-ok5cmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506027/original/file-20230124-13-ok5cmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=886&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506027/original/file-20230124-13-ok5cmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=886&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506027/original/file-20230124-13-ok5cmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=886&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506027/original/file-20230124-13-ok5cmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1113&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506027/original/file-20230124-13-ok5cmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1113&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506027/original/file-20230124-13-ok5cmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1113&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A bust of Zeno.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For a Stoic, it turns out there are very few things you can control. In fact, Stoicism suggests the only thing really under your control is your response to the world, rather than anything in the world itself. Delaney summarises: “we can control just three things: 1. our character, 2. our reactions […] 3. and how we treat others.” Putting effort into anything else is considered a waste of time and energy. </p>
<p>I have an issue with this. First, there are lots of things out there in the real world I can control. I can control my motor vehicle when I drive to the shops. Or, when I sit out on my back deck on Sunday evenings, I can control the fire in the fire pit. I can also exert some level of control over other people. Say my wife is feeling tired and irritable. I can either, as a good Stoic, try to feel good about that, or I can get up from the lounge and bring her a glass of wine and some crackers with Taramasalata.</p>
<p>One of the problems here is Stoicism’s insistence on this binary distinction between things you control and things you don’t. Pigliucci recognises this problem, briefly considers a third category of things that are partly under our control but dismisses it.</p>
<p>“It comes naturally to think of the dichotomy as too strict […]” he writes. He goes on to describe how a modern Stoic, William Irvine, has suggested a “trichotomy” comprising control, influence, and no control. But “this suggestion,” writes Pigliucci, “is a mistake.” </p>
<p>This leads us to the passivity problem. If we focus only on our character, reactions, and actions, as Stoicism proposes, and put no effort into things that lie beyond our direct control, it seems to me that a practising Stoic will remain passive in the face of major problems like climate change or social inequality. </p>
<p>Pigliucci, Holiday and Delaney all recognise this issue. Without wanting to oversimplify how these authors respond to this complex problem, there is a common theme in these three books. At some point or another, each of them points out that, despite the passivity problem, practising Stoics can be progressive and activist.</p>
<p>It is true that some of the Stoics were (sort of) progressive, or even activist, in their positions. Stoic education was open to women, unlike most philosophical schools at the time. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epictetus">Epictetus</a>, a late Stoic, was a slave who became a sage, a kind of social mobility that was more or less unheard of in the ancient world.</p>
<p>But I would argue that whatever progressive positions an individual Stoic may or may not advocate for, the “dichotomy of control” is an important claim that militates <em>against</em> activism, promoting acceptance of <em>everything</em> outside your direct control.</p>
<p>Nietzsche offers us a radically different approach. To understand what he offers we have to understand that he sees everything as a contest. Everyone (and everything) is expressing their agency in the world (their “will to power”) all the time. When two people come into contact with one another, or with an animal, or a plant, or a situation, their natural orientation towards that person (thing, situation) is to express themselves, to exercise agency, to take control (or try to).</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506029/original/file-20230124-19-uv8g4s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506029/original/file-20230124-19-uv8g4s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506029/original/file-20230124-19-uv8g4s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506029/original/file-20230124-19-uv8g4s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506029/original/file-20230124-19-uv8g4s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506029/original/file-20230124-19-uv8g4s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1023&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506029/original/file-20230124-19-uv8g4s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1023&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506029/original/file-20230124-19-uv8g4s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1023&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Friedrich Nietzsche, circa 1875.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For him, this contest is something to be embraced regardless of the outcome. It might be that you succeed, to some degree at least, and this brings with it the satisfaction of self-expression. Or you might fail, and feel frustrated, or angry, or depressed. For him, all of this is fine. It is natural to experience both success and failure, feeling good and feeling bad. In fact, these are all an essential part of the process of becoming what you are, even if you are to be <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12322.Daybreak?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_13">“wrecked against infinity”</a> in the attempt.</p>
<p>This seems to me a much better way to go, especially if you want to make the most of your life and your potential as a human being. No one would ever achieve anything incredible, or step beyond their own limitations and boundaries, if they simply accepted that the only thing they could “really” control was themselves. Even if you’re (almost) guaranteed to fail, there is merit in extending yourself and expressing yourself into (or even against) the world.</p>
<p>Sure, you can’t control the outcome. Sure, you will experience failure and, as a consequence, distress. Nietzsche’s response to this is simply: so what? To quote him directly from his work <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/94578.The_Gay_Science?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_15">The Gay Science</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Is our life really so painful and burdensome that it would be advantageous for us to trade it for a fossilised Stoic way of life? Things are not bad enough for us that they have to be bad for us in the Stoic style! </p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-nietzsche-nihilism-and-reasons-to-be-cheerful-130378">Explainer: Nietzsche, nihilism and reasons to be cheerful</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Equanimity</h2>
<p>This brings us to the second problem I see with Stoicism: its morbid fear of strong emotions, and particularly negative ones. </p>
<p>The Stoics argue the reason we should accept that we can’t control anything out there in the world is because if we don’t end up getting our own way, we might feel bad about it. This is the point about externals versus internals in Stoic theory: you can’t control externals, so don’t pursue them, or you might get frustrated, angry or bitter. Epictetus <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1045017.The_Discourses">writes</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you always bear in mind what is your own <em>(i.e. an internal within your control)</em> and what is another’s <em>(i.e. an external outside your control)</em>, then you will never be disturbed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Emotional self-regulation and striving for permanent internal equanimity are two very different things. In the former, we aim to fully experience our emotional states but still behave ethically towards others. In the latter, we aim not to experience the full range of human emotions and instead float languidly in a peaceful sea of feelgood nothingness.</p>
<p>Personally, I could not imagine anything worse than equanimity. It seems like a kind of death, a desire to take away from us one of the quintessential human experiences: our emotions.</p>
<p>Surely feeling strong, negative emotions is (perhaps strangely) one of the great experiences in life? Why do we love horror films, sad songs, tragic theatre, in-your-face artwork? Isn’t it to evoke precisely these emotions – hatred, contempt, disgust, fear, anger? Stoicism, it seems to me, takes away from us something that we love to experience, albeit in a somewhat roundabout way.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506033/original/file-20230124-22-avqvm0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506033/original/file-20230124-22-avqvm0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506033/original/file-20230124-22-avqvm0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506033/original/file-20230124-22-avqvm0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506033/original/file-20230124-22-avqvm0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506033/original/file-20230124-22-avqvm0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506033/original/file-20230124-22-avqvm0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506033/original/file-20230124-22-avqvm0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bill Skarsgård in It (2017). Horror films provoke strong emotions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">New Line cinema, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, Vertigo Entertainment</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Again, Nietzsche offers a different perspective. For him, if life is endless contest, and the goal of life is to navigate this ethically, then we get a different perspective on our emotional lives. When it comes to negative emotions, we don’t ask whether these make us happy – obviously they don’t, by definition. Instead, we ask whether they help us in the contest of life, in self-expression.</p>
<p>From this perspective, emotions like love (and sympathy and compassion) can be good, but they can also be damaging. Emotions like frustration, contempt or anger can be bad, but they can also be helpful. In both cases, the key is to be strong enough to allow yourself to really feel these emotions and then turn them into ethical action.</p>
<p>To quote Nietzsche, the question is not whether these emotions are inherently good or bad to feel, but whether they come from a place of personal deficit or inner abundance:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Nowadays I avail myself of this primary distinction concerning all aesthetic values: in every case I ask, ‘Is it hunger or superabundance that have become creative here?’ </p>
</blockquote>
<p>If they come from the former, they will make you weaker and you will behave badly as a result. If they come from the latter, they will make you stronger and you will behave well as a result. The great advantage of Nietzsche’s approach over Stoicism is that it allows you to fully experience who you are.</p>
<h2>The injury contradiction</h2>
<p>The final problem with Stoicism is that of injury. There are two parts to this. The first is the idea that you are only injured if you think you are injured. Pigliucci summarises the theory: “You are not disturbed by things in themselves, but by your judgements of things.” </p>
<p>If, for example, someone robs you, the problem is your judgement that that thing was ever yours. He explains: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Never regard anything as yours, but as a loan from the universe … Has someone taken away your property? That was not yours in the first place.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But, also according to Pigliucci, Stoicism is fundamentally aimed at helping other people. You should act in such a way that you make other people’s lives better: “the aim (is) becoming better human beings, which means becoming more thoughtful and more helpful to society at large.” In other words, a good Stoic will act only to improve other people’s lives.</p>
<p>But I take issue with the argument that if someone feels injured by something I have done or said, the problem is actually in their heads, rather than in my actions. If I flip perspectives – couldn’t I simply say that I am free to do whatever I please and if people feel injured, well that’s on them? So in what sense am I obligated to behave well towards others?</p>
<p>One of the reasons Stoicism is appealing to people is because the Stoics have a reputation for a no-nonsense, hyper-realistic attitude to life. Things will go wrong. You will die. People you love will abandon you. Stoicism confronts all of these realities and says “just accept.”</p>
<p>But when it comes to your feelings of personal injury it says: “reject.” Reject the sensation of loss. Ignore the financial consequence. Whatever you think this injury has cost you – it hasn’t. </p>
<p>This seems to me to be unrealistic, anti-human and borderline unethical. Wouldn’t it be better, if my $20,000 road bike has been stolen, to allow me to be angry? To feel the injustice of it? To rail against the world? The harsh reality is that I have been injured. It is not all in my head. To pretend otherwise is to, well, pretend.</p>
<p>Again, this is where I find Nietzsche’s approach helpful. He also promotes a version of acceptance – but his is much more radical. It is a matter of accepting everything – including yourself. </p>
<p>You’re a person who gets irritated by the smallest things, things outside your control like a person loudly crunching chips in the cinema. Accept everything about this situation, your own responses included. Your rising childlike instinctual hatred at the noise-perpetrator <em>included</em>. Your absolute inability to just get on with it and enjoy the movie, <em>included</em>.</p>
<p>I find this much more appealing, realistic and affirming than the Stoic double standard, where you accept everything about the world “out there” but idealise the world “in here”. You will end up holding yourself to impossible standards if you critique what’s going on for you and let pass everything that’s going on for others.</p>
<h2>If not Stoicism then …?</h2>
<p>So – where to from here? If Stoic wisdom helps you to live the way you want to, then go for it. But if, like me, you have a problem with its passive approach, its reduction of your emotional life towards equanimity, its contradictory way of talking about the standards for yourself compared to the standards for others, then I encourage you to look elsewhere.</p>
<p>For me, Nietzsche’s philosophy provides a much more realistic and exciting way forward.</p>
<p><em>Neil Durrant is the author of Nietzsche’s Renewal of Ancient Ethics: Friendship as Contest, and he runs a <a href="https://instagram.com/neildurrant">public philosophy account on Instagram</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198307/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neil Durrant does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Stoicism is having a cultural moment, with bestselling books and podcasts taking this ancient philosophy to a new audience. But there are problems with Stoicism, both in its modern and ancient forms.Neil Durrant, Adjunct fellow, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1893902022-10-25T19:03:20Z2022-10-25T19:03:20ZThe book that changed me: how Pierre Hadot’s Philosophy as a Way of Life taught me to ‘love a few old truths’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491248/original/file-20221024-22-y4j71k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C2352%2C1555&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Marble heads of four philosophers in the British Museum. From foreground: Socrates, Antisthenes, Chrysippos and Epicurus.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The most life-changing books can seem like they have always been there. What they say may seem obvious, once we’ve read them. But that’s only because they’ve reshaped how we look at things. </p>
<p>The French philosopher <a href="https://iep.utm.edu/hadot/">Pierre Hadot</a> (1922-2010) began his intellectual career as a trainee priest and philologist (a student of ancient books), with an interest in forms of mysticism. Yet through his philosophical studies and writing, he has become globally renowned, exerting a huge influence in the realm of <a href="https://modernstoicism.com/">modern Stoicism</a>.</p>
<p>Hadot’s best known work is his 1995 book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/305860.Philosophy_as_a_Way_of_Life">Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault</a>, based on a <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Exercices_spirituels_et_philosophie_anti.html?id=CH0oAAAAYAAJ&redir_esc=y">1981 French collection</a>. </p>
<p>I came upon it indirectly in 2008, through a university friend’s class on authors who had influenced the renowned philosopher, <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-ideas-of-foucault-99758">Michel Foucault</a>. I was almost immediately captivated. </p>
<p>Hadot tells us in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781118609187">this book</a> that his goal is to make people “love a few old truths”. In my case, and for many thousands of others around the world, he succeeded profoundly.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-ideas-of-foucault-99758">Explainer: the ideas of Foucault</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Ways of life</h2>
<p>Philosophy as a Way of Life argues that the way we mostly think about philosophy today, as the professional pursuit of a tiny number of experts, is only a comparatively recent thing. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490820/original/file-20221020-21-xx0xn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490820/original/file-20221020-21-xx0xn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490820/original/file-20221020-21-xx0xn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490820/original/file-20221020-21-xx0xn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490820/original/file-20221020-21-xx0xn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490820/original/file-20221020-21-xx0xn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490820/original/file-20221020-21-xx0xn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490820/original/file-20221020-21-xx0xn9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To be a philosopher in the ancient world, Hadot contends, involved much more than learning expert techniques of reasoning, analysis, and writing. <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674013735">Ancient philosophers</a> adopted the “way of life” of one or other of the philosophical schools, whether Platonist, Aristotelian, Stoic, Epicurean, or the Cynics’. Philosophers of the ancient world, Hadot writes, became a kind of recognised, somewhat “edgy” cultural group. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clouds">Comedies were even written</a> about them.</p>
<p>For their part, Hadot stresses, the philosophers tended to see people in everyday life as caught up in needless fears and empty desires. As he writes, without examining our opinions, and those of our societies, we live out a kind of “inauthentic condition of life, darkened by unconsciousness and harassed by worry”. </p>
<p>Philosophies like <a href="https://thinkinc.org.au/stoicism-101/">Stoicism</a> did not only challenge how students thought, but prompted them to “relearn how to see the world”, as Hadot writes, (echoing the philosopher <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/the-phenomenology-of-merleau-ponty-and-embodiment-in-the-world">Maurice Merleau-Ponty</a>). They could try to become less harried and wiser human beings. </p>
<h2>Philosophies of living</h2>
<p>Hadot does not deny that ancient philosophers developed highly complex theoretical visions of nature and human nature. He spent decades studying <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Plotin-Porphyre-Neoplatoniciennes-Pierre-Hadot/dp/225142010X">the metaphysical systems of later antiquity</a>. But, he shows that ancient philosophers also sought to draw ethical and existential consequences from these theoretical understandings. They believed that, as reflective beings, what we think can and <em>should</em> change how we live. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490821/original/file-20221020-17-vvr4vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490821/original/file-20221020-17-vvr4vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490821/original/file-20221020-17-vvr4vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490821/original/file-20221020-17-vvr4vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490821/original/file-20221020-17-vvr4vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490821/original/file-20221020-17-vvr4vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490821/original/file-20221020-17-vvr4vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490821/original/file-20221020-17-vvr4vd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1077&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pierre Hadot in 1997.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So, take Epicureanism. If everything in the universe (as the Epicureans claimed) was made of material atoms, Hadot stresses, this mattered practically. It meant there could be no interventionist deities for people to fear. Death would also be “nothing to us”. For it will only be the dispersion of the atoms making up our souls, which <em>we</em> won’t be around any more to experience. </p>
<p>Of course, Hadot thinks scholars should still analyse the theoretical and technical components of ancient texts. Philosophy as a Way of Life, however, issues an unmistakable challenge to readers to apply the ancient philosophical ideas to improve our own everyday lives. </p>
<p>As Hadot explains his method:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If one says directly, do this or that, one dictates a conduct with a tone of false certainty. But thanks to the description of spiritual exercises lived by another, one allows a call to be heard that the reader has the freedom to accept or refuse. It is up to the reader to decide…</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Spiritual exercises</h2>
<p>Hadot stresses that the ancient philosophers realised it’s hard for people to challenge old beliefs, conquer negative emotions, and live consistently in light of their deepest, reasoned beliefs, given the many obstacles and distractions of life. He thus introduces arguably his <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Selected-Writings-Pierre-Hadot-Philosophy/dp/1474272991">most important, yet controversial idea</a> in this book: that of these “spiritual exercises”. </p>
<p>Many ancient philosophical texts, Hadot argues, can only be rightly understood as involving philosophers’ recommending and <em>practising</em> specific meditative, cognitive and imaginative exercises whose goal was to transform not just how they thought, but what they <em>felt</em> and <em>did</em> on a daily basis. </p>
<p>In Stoicism, for example, students are enjoined to premeditate the worst that can happen, and prepare themselves in advance for adversities; taught techniques to assess situations whilst bracketing their subjective, passionate judgments about things and people; or again, asked to imagine their troubles as if they were looking down from a height, so they can appreciate how small we each (and our problems) are on the cosmic scale.</p>
<p>Philosophies such as Epicureanism and Stoicism, he writes, can thus “nourish the spiritual life of men and women of our times”, despite the long centuries since they were penned.</p>
<p>These claims mightn’t sound radical. But Hadot’s idea that philosophy could do anything “spiritual”, as against intellectual – let alone nourish the lives of modern men and women – has led to a great deal of criticism. Hadot has been charged with making philosophy into “religion” or of underplaying the place of reasoning and analysis in the discipline.</p>
<p>After well over a decade of academic study of philosophy, Hadot’s argument was a revelation to me. His point was that books like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marcus-Aurelius-Roman-emperor/The-Meditations">Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations</a> don’t make sense unless we acknowledge that in them, we are witnessing a philosopher working his theoretical ideas (in this case, Stoicism) into a daily regimen, to deal with the nuts and bolts of his life: from people behaving badly to his own desires and fears.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-how-marcus-aurelius-meditations-can-help-us-in-a-time-of-pandemic-142659">Guide to the Classics: how Marcus Aurelius' Meditations can help us in a time of pandemic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Rather than endlessly chasing theoretical originality, philosophy – in this ancient model – is about challenging ourselves to live more fully, more rationally, more humanely. </p>
<p>The “fascinating power” of Meditations, for instance, lies precisely for Hadot in how, when we read this text, “we have the feeling of witnessing the practice of spiritual exercises – captured live …” We are witnessing, he argues, “someone in the process of training himself to be a human being.”</p>
<p>This depiction of philosophy as speaking to everyday and yet fundamental concerns resonated for me. Indeed Philosophy as a Way of Life led me to read the ancient Stoics, led by <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-life-gives-you-lemons-4-stoic-tips-for-getting-through-lockdown-from-epictetus-166487">Epictetus</a> and Marcus Aurelius, as sources of exercises and guidance in everyday life, as well as objects of professional research. My wife and I even called our boy, Marcus. </p>
<p>Some time later, I became involved in the global <a href="https://learn.modernstoicism.com/">modern Stoicism</a> community, contributing to events, blogs, and magazines. In the COVID years, I became one member of the organising team of <a href="https://www.stoiconxmelbourne.com.au/">the Melbourne Stoicon-X event</a>, which brings Australians interested in Stoicism as a way of life together each October to discuss these ancient ideas and share experiences.</p>
<p>None of this would have happened, if I hadn’t happened upon Hadot’s book.</p>
<h2>To bring old ideas to life</h2>
<p>Reading Philosophy as a Way of Life is like being given the keys to a series of wonderful conversations about how best to live that have been widely forgotten, but flourished (in the West) from Plato, at least, to Michel de Montaigne.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-michel-de-montaignes-essays-63508">Guide to the classics: Michel de Montaigne's Essays</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>By asking us to reconsider texts by the Epicurean, Stoic, Platonist, Christian and Renaissance philosophers, Hadot’s wonderful book opens up a treasure trove of practical exercises, which speak directly to the adversities fortune throws at us.</p>
<p>Perhaps not everyone needs a book like this, and that is to be admired. But a great many in our unsettled world might benefit, as I have done, from keeping a copy of Philosophy as a Way of Life on their shelves, learning from it to love a few old truths.</p>
<p><em>Stoicon-x Melbourne is on <a href="https://www.stoiconxmelbourne.com.au/">Saturday 29 October</a>, as part of global Stoic week. Speakers will include diver, cave explorer and former Australian of the Year Craig Challen.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189390/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Sharpe works at Deakin University. He has received ARC funding for work on philosophy and the life (until 2019). He is a coorganiser of Melbourne Stoicon-X (Oct. 29, 2022) & also teaches Stoicism at Think Inc Academy.</span></em></p>Pierre Hadot sees philosophy as a guide to improving our contemporary lives.Matthew Sharpe, Associate Professor in Philosophy, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1817012022-08-16T12:29:05Z2022-08-16T12:29:05ZHow Stoicism influenced music from the French Renaissance to Pink Floyd<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478990/original/file-20220812-3904-hath90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=36%2C36%2C4898%2C3322&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'All things are possible,' Pink Floyd's Roger Waters said of the message contained in the band's eighth album, 'Dark Side of the Moon.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/photo-of-roger-waters-and-pink-floyd-roger-waters-news-photo/84857767?adppopup=true">David Redfern/Redferns via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Have you ever turned to music when struggling with a difficult emotion, like sadness, anxiety or anger? </p>
<p>Most people believe that music has some therapeutic power, and that confidence is increasingly backed by <a href="https://www.musictherapy.org/research/sound_health_initiative/">empirical evidence</a>. However, there remains little consensus on precisely how or why music has an ability to influence our emotional, physical and mental well-being.</p>
<p>Since ancient times, physicians and philosophers have explored the power of music in human life. Although the writings of Plato and Aristotle are more famous, another ancient school of philosophy, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism/">Stoicism</a>, cultivated an interest in music’s therapeutic potential. </p>
<p>Given that the word “<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stoic">stoic</a>” is mostly used to describe a rigid, emotionless person, Stoic musical practices would seem doomed to the boring or bizarre. </p>
<p>But Stoicism – the capital “S” kind – is a school of thought that’s really more about managing turbulent emotions in everyday life. This casts their connection to music in a different light, and it helps explain how Stoicism positively shaped the course of intellectual and music history. </p>
<h2>Control what you can</h2>
<p>Founded in ancient Athens and peaking in popularity in first century Rome, Stoicism was developed by philosophers like <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/seneca/">Seneca</a>, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epictetus/">Epictetus</a> and the Roman emperor <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marcus-aurelius/">Marcus Aurelius</a> to manage destructive emotions such as anxiety, anger and grief through exercises that shift perspective. The question of control forms the core of this method. The Stoics taught that it is only by recognizing and accepting what is beyond a person’s control that a person can exert maximal control over what is within their power. </p>
<p>Importantly, the Stoic approach does not seek to directly suppress bad emotions but focuses instead on reshaping a person’s worldview, so that when they encounter difficulty or trauma, they will be prepared to experience emotions less destructively. </p>
<p>This strategy of putting things in perspective may seem familiar; the founders of cognitive behavioral therapy, <a href="https://theconversation.com/cbt-dbt-psychodynamic-what-type-of-therapy-is-right-for-me-171101">one of the most popular forms of psychotherapy today</a>, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Philosophy-of-Cognitive-Behavioural-Therapy-CBT-Stoic-Philosophy/Robertson/p/book/9780367219147">directly borrowed from Stoicism</a>. </p>
<p>In recent years – and especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic – interest in Stoicism <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/apr/16/how-stoics-are-speaking-to-locked-down-readers">has surged</a>, with people from diverse political and economic backgrounds recognizing the efficacy of this ancient system to address afflictions like anxiety and addiction.</p>
<h2>In turbulent times, Neostoicism emerges</h2>
<p>So where does music fit into all of this?</p>
<p><a href="https://tufts.academia.edu/MelindaLatour">As a historical musicologist</a>, I have done <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-voice-of-virtue-9780197529744?q=voice%20of%20virtue&lang=en&cc=us#">extensive research</a> on musical practices inspired by the revival of Stoicism in late-16th and 17th-century France, a movement known as Neostoicism.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478991/original/file-20220812-14-3ybwc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting of a skull, shells, musical compositions and an hourglass." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478991/original/file-20220812-14-3ybwc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478991/original/file-20220812-14-3ybwc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478991/original/file-20220812-14-3ybwc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478991/original/file-20220812-14-3ybwc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478991/original/file-20220812-14-3ybwc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478991/original/file-20220812-14-3ybwc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478991/original/file-20220812-14-3ybwc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Painter Carstian Luyckx depicts Neostoic reminders of the shortness of life: a skull, dying flowers and an hourglass.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carstian_Luyckx_-_Vanitas,_still_life_with_skull,_music_book,_violin_and_shells.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Emerging in the wake of the violent <a href="https://explore.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/show/renaissance-in-print/frenchwarsofreligion">French Wars of Religion</a>, Neostoics looked to Stoicism as a remedy for social and political instability. They developed a vocal music repertoire to teach the principles of the system, guiding singers and listeners to “rehearse” Stoic techniques of emotional regulation through informal musical gatherings in people’s homes. </p>
<p>These songs illustrated Stoic principles through musical “<a href="https://youtu.be/HaQTq6LsggA">text painting</a>,” in which specific words, actions or concepts were musically conveyed through sound – and, sometimes, visuals – in the score.</p>
<p>Take an example from 1582 – “L’eau va viste,” a poem by Antoine de Chandieu that was set to music by Paschal de L’Estocart.</p>
<pre class="highlight plaintext"><code> L’eau va viste en s’escoulant,
Plus viste le traict volant,
Et plus viste encore passe
Le vent qui les nues chasse.
Mais de la joye mondaine
La course est si tressoudaine,
Qu’elle passe encor devant
L’eau et le traict et le vent.
Water flows quickly,
Even faster the flying arrow,
And faster still passes,
The wind which chases the clouds,
But of worldly joy,
Its course is so sudden,
That it passes even before,
The water, the arrow, and the wind.
</code></pre>
<p>Numerous Stoic writings, such as Seneca’s “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/On-the-Brevity-of-Life">On the Brevity of Life</a>,” evoke similar imagery of running water to warn against placing one’s happiness in external comforts and securities, which, like a current, quickly pass. </p>
<p>L’Estocart’s musical arrangement for “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYKsBPxmenc">L’eau va viste</a>” picks up on this quality of motion. A snowballing rhythm gains momentum with each new example of quick passing. </p>
<h2>The river of time</h2>
<p>Zoom ahead almost four centuries, and the English rock band Pink Floyd composed a strikingly similar musical reflection in their iconic song “Time” from their 1973 album, “<a href="https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/DarkSideOfTheMoon.pdf">Dark Side of the Moon</a>.” </p>
<p>The album outlines all the major forces and concerns that can drive people insane: aging, death, fear, greed and violence. </p>
<p>Mental health held particular salience for the band. Their founding frontman, Syd Barrett, <a href="https://www.pastemagazine.com/science/psychedelics/was-syd-barrett-an-acid-casualty/">had a mental breakdown</a> only a few years prior. According to Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, the album is about “life with a heartbeat,” and the band signals this by opening and closing the album with a slow, simulated heartbeat that sounds somehow both mechanical and profoundly human.</p>
<p><audio preload="metadata" controls="controls" data-duration="23" data-image="" data-title="The opening of 'Dark Side of the Moon' features the beating of a heart." data-size="381218" data-source="" data-source-url="" data-license="" data-license-url="">
<source src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/audio/2573/speak-to-me-trim-2.mp3" type="audio/mpeg">
</audio>
<div class="audio-player-caption">
The opening of ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ features the beating of a heart.
</div></p>
<p>Developing this rhythmic symbolism further, the single “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgXozIma-Oc">Time</a>” uses numerous musical strategies to draw attention to the fragility of human life.</p>
<p>The track opens with a meandering two-and-a-half minute instrumental introduction, slowly building from a breathy synthesizer drone to the disorienting sound of numerous ticking clocks. Then there’s a cacophony of alarms before listeners hear a mechanical bass click that sounds like a metronome or a mechanical heartbeat. </p>
<p><audio preload="metadata" controls="controls" data-duration="58" data-image="" data-title="In 'Time,' the opening chaos of sounds eventually settles into a groove." data-size="928557" data-source="" data-source-url="" data-license="" data-license-url="">
<source src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/audio/2567/time-trim-1.mp3" type="audio/mpeg">
</audio>
<div class="audio-player-caption">
In ‘Time,’ the opening chaos of sounds eventually settles into a groove.
</div></p>
<p>The entrance of the electric guitar and increasingly regular musical phrases finally set up the arrival of <a href="https://genius.com/Pink-floyd-time-lyrics">the vocals in the first verse</a>: “Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day / fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way.” </p>
<p>This unusual extended instrumental introduction destabilizes a listener’s expectation of musical time and demands greater attention to the moment-by-moment sensations of its passing. The lyrics throughout the song reinforce this initial musical warning –that listeners must pay close attention to the flow of time and to make sure it’s used with purpose and meaning. </p>
<p>“The time is gone. The song is over,” <a href="https://genius.com/Pink-floyd-time-lyrics">the lyrics conclude</a>, “Thought I’d something more to say.” </p>
<h2>An internal store of power</h2>
<p>These two musical examples, composed nearly 400 years apart, model a core element of Stoic therapy: By meditating on the fragility of time, Stoics seek not to instill dread, but to reveal death and transience as natural aspects of the human experience that can be faced without anxiety. This calm acceptance offers a release from destructive emotions like fear and yearning that pull our attention to the future and the past. <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/6367/meditations-by-marcus-aurelius-a-new-translation-by-gregory-hays/9781588361738">As Marcus Aurelius recommended</a>, “Give yourself a gift – the present moment.”</p>
<p>Stoicism and its abundant artistic echoes are easily misread as pessimistic because of this relentless focus on human mortality and fragility. This negative reading misses Stoicism’s profoundly optimistic and empowering message, which is that our mental freedom remains in our control, regardless of our external circumstances. </p>
<p>Waters highlighted exactly this point in his defense of the humanism of “Dark Side of the Moon,” <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Rough_Guide_to_Pink_Floyd.html?id=yHsZAQAAIAAJ">explaining that</a> “Despite the rather depressing ending … there is an allowance that all things are possible, that the potential is in our hands.”</p>
<p>Music, from this perspective, offers a way to learn about the therapeutic method of the Stoics in a way that goes beyond the contemplation of philosophical lyrics. These examples – and many others in the Stoic tradition that so thoughtfully unite words and sounds – transform helpful Stoic advice into a therapeutic practice guided through the twists and turns of song.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181701/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melinda Latour received funding for this research from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Musicological Society, and the Tufts University Faculty Research Awards.</span></em></p>Stoicism can easily be misread as pessimistic because of its relentless focus on mortality and fragility. But its core message – contained in songs spanning generations – is profoundly empowering.Melinda Latour, Assistant Professor of Musicology, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1664872021-08-22T20:06:35Z2021-08-22T20:06:35ZWhen life gives you lemons … 4 Stoic tips for getting through lockdown from Epictetus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417132/original/file-20210820-27-1ypvweu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C28%2C6210%2C4451&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/MvCde9kgov8">Unsplash/Cristina Anne Costello</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Born into slavery, then crippled by his master and exiled by the Emperor Domitian, <a href="https://dailystoic.com/epictetus/">Epictetus</a> (c.60-135 CE) has become arguably the central figure in today’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/the-2300-year-old-philosophy-stoicism-has-enjoyed-a-revival-of-late-including-in-silicon-valley/2020/01/02/d2f6e648-1b64-11ea-87f7-f2e91143c60d_story.html">global revival of Stoicism</a>. </p>
<p>A straight-talking advocate of the idea philosophy should help people flourish even in hard times, Epictetus has much to offer as we wrestle with pandemic lockdowns and uncertainty. Here are four tips from perhaps the most stoic of the Stoics: </p>
<h2>1. Don’t worry about things we can’t control</h2>
<p>The start of Epictetus’ <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19058180-epictetus-enchiridion">Enchiridion</a> handbook lays out his famous “dichotomy of control”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Of things some are depend upon us, and others do not. In our power are opinion, impulse, desire, aversion. Not in our power are the body, property, reputation, offices, and in a word, whatever are not our own acts.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s an idea that echoes today in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/us/11prayer.html">Serenity Prayer</a> of 12-step recovery programs. </p>
<p>If we worry about things we can’t change, Epictetus continues, we are wasting our energies. If we imagine that we can control the past or future — or even pandemics — we are setting ourselves up for disappointment.</p>
<p>But we can think and act, and do our best to respond to situations with courage, justice, and moderation. </p>
<p>Today’s citizens in lockdown can’t control whether (or when) restrictions are lifted. We can all however wear masks, social distance, get vaccinated as soon as possible, and continue working, exercising and educating our kids as best we can.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1105993376460169219"}"></div></p>
<h2>2. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best</h2>
<p>Like other Stoics, Epictetus observes people are most prone to being disturbed by events which take them by surprise. By premeditating the worst case scenario, and imaginatively working through how we could respond in advance, we can lessen our vulnerability.</p>
<p>If this “premeditation of evils” sounds too frightening, “begin from little things”, Epictetus advises:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Is the oil spilled? Is a little wine stolen? Say on the occasion, at such price is sold freedom from being upset; at such price is sold tranquillity, but nothing is got for nothing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While the preparation can be confronting, Epictetus suggests that being grieved or angered by things we have no say over, like a sudden lockdown extension, is far worse. “Premeditated is prepared”, he tells us. If things go better than we prepare for, all the better.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417130/original/file-20210820-21-agwpuw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="sketch of man at desk" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417130/original/file-20210820-21-agwpuw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/417130/original/file-20210820-21-agwpuw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417130/original/file-20210820-21-agwpuw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417130/original/file-20210820-21-agwpuw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417130/original/file-20210820-21-agwpuw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417130/original/file-20210820-21-agwpuw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/417130/original/file-20210820-21-agwpuw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Detail from an engraving for Edward Ivie’s Latin translation of Epictetus’ Enchiridon, printed in Oxford in 1715.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Epicteti_Enchiridion_Latinis_versibus_adumbratum_(Oxford_1715)_frontispiece.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Contextualise and ‘other-ise’</h2>
<p>When we’re under duress, Epictetus observes, we often feel as if what we are experiencing is unprecedented. No one else can understand. But it helps to remember that few experiences, even during a pandemic, are unprecedented.</p>
<p>We are in the second year of COVID. But the world wars lasted four and six years. This is a pandemic, yet other generations have experienced plagues (or the Spanish flu) in which grievous losses were also sustained. Those who survived were able to rebuild. So will we.</p>
<p>It can also help, Epictetus suggests, to “step back” and assess our experience as if it was happening to somebody else:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For example, when a friend’s child breaks a cup it is easy for us to say, ‘That is in the nature of cups and of children.’ [But] when you realise that situation is true of you, it is easy for you to say that same thing to yourself when a child breaks your cup …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So, when we are inclined to despair in difficulties “we ought to remember how we feel when we hear of the same misfortune befalling others”. By looking at ourselves as if we were an other, we can apply the same support and encouragement to ourselves.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CSwflILqB_V","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-philosophers-say-solitude-can-be-helpful-even-if-you-didnt-choose-it-147440">Why philosophers say solitude can be helpful (even if you didn't choose it)</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>4. Slow down, make sure</h2>
<p>Epictetus, <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Epictetus,_the_Discourses_as_reported_by_Arrian,_the_Manual,_and_Fragments/Book_3/Chapter_12">echoing Socrates</a>, says that any unexamined idea is not worth having. In life, we can easily leap between ideas in ways which lead us to false beliefs. Epictetus writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>These reasons do not cohere: I am richer than you, therefore I am better than you; I am more eloquent than you, therefore I am better than you. On the contrary these reasons cohere: I am richer than you, therefore my possessions are greater than yours: I am more eloquent than you, therefore my speech is superior to yours.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-how-marcus-aurelius-meditations-can-help-us-in-a-time-of-pandemic-142659">Guide to the Classics: how Marcus Aurelius' Meditations can help us in a time of pandemic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It’s easy to add a lot of avoidable, habitual, evaluative judgements to what we know and experience. Often, these add-ons introduce assumptions which aren’t based on adequate information. These lead us to react excessively or poorly.</p>
<p>Epictetus recommends we slow our roll and our “judginess” down, especially when it comes to condemning others:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Somebody is hasty about bathing; don’t say that he bathes badly, but that he is hasty about bathing. […] For until you have decided what judgement prompts him, how do you know that what he is doing is bad?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the age of swarming internet conspiracies on social media, this fourth piece of old Epictetan advice is new again. </p>
<p>When presented with allegations of nefarious or appalling conduct by fellow citizens, Epictetus recommends we ask: do I know that that is true? Do I have enough information to be sure? </p>
<p>Such self-examination stops us from becoming enraged on the basis of fictions — let alone spreading misinformation which provokes or enrages others. If enough people do that, we could collectively avoid many future difficulties.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166487/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Sharpe has received ARC funding to research philosophy as a way of life, and teaches at Deakin University. He is also teaching courses on practical Stoicism in the second half of 2021 with Think Inc.</span></em></p>Stoic philosopher Epictetus tells us not to worry about things we can’t control, prepare for the unexpected and slow down on the judginess. This is great lockdown advice over 2,000 years later.Matthew Sharpe, Associate Professor in Philosophy, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1474402020-10-21T18:59:56Z2020-10-21T18:59:56ZWhy philosophers say solitude can be helpful (even if you didn’t choose it)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364624/original/file-20201021-19-1wpth6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past seven months, many of us have got closer to experiencing the kind of solitude long sought by <a href="https://theconversation.com/monks-experts-in-social-distancing-find-strength-in-isolation-139452">monks</a>, nuns, philosophers and misanthropes. </p>
<p>For some, this has brought loneliness. Nevertheless, <a href="https://tricycle.org/magazine/solitude-in-buddhism/">like religions such as Buddhism</a>, the West has a rich literature — both religious and secular — exploring the possible benefits of being alone. </p>
<p>“Take time and see the Lord is good,” <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2034%3A8&version=KJV">Psalm 34</a> enjoins, in a biblical passage long read as a call to periodically withdraw from worldly occupations. The best form of life will be contemplative, the philosopher Aristotle <a href="https://classicalwisdom.com/greek_books/nicomachean-ethics-book-x/7/">concurs</a>. </p>
<p>Solitude, according to the Renaissance poet-philosopher <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_vita_solitaria">Petrarch</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>rehabilitates the soul, corrects morals, renews affections, erases blemishes, purges faults, (and) reconciles God and man. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Here are four key benefits of solitude these very different, contemplative authors point to.</p>
<h2>1. Freedom to do what you want — any old time</h2>
<p>The first boon identified by those who praise <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Solitude-Philosophical-Encounter-Philip-Koch/dp/0812692438">solitude</a> is the leisure and liberty it provides. </p>
<p>There is freedom in space. You can (proverbially) get around in your PJs, and who’s to know? There is the release from the needs and demands of others (a liberty many parents may have found themselves longing for recently). And there may be a freedom in time, also. In solitude, we may do, think, imagine and pay easy attention to whatever pleases us. </p>
<p>“When I dance, I dance; when I sleep, I sleep,” the 16th century French philosopher Montaigne, a connoisseur of the quiet life, mused. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Yes, and when I walk alone in a beautiful orchard, if my thoughts drift to far-off matters for some part of the time, for some other part I lead them back again to the walk, the orchard, to the sweetness of this solitude, to myself.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-michel-de-montaignes-essays-63508">Guide to the classics: Michel de Montaigne's Essays</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. Reconnecting with yourself</h2>
<p>Solitude (unless of course we are working from home) withdraws the external objects, demands and tasks crowding our days. All the energies we have distributed so widely, in different relationships, projects and pursuits can regather themselves, “like a wave rolling from sand and shore back to its ocean source,” as psychologist Oliver Morgan has <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Solitude-Philosophical-Encounter-Philip-Koch/dp/0812692438">written</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364626/original/file-20201021-23-axu25u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364626/original/file-20201021-23-axu25u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364626/original/file-20201021-23-axu25u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364626/original/file-20201021-23-axu25u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364626/original/file-20201021-23-axu25u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364626/original/file-20201021-23-axu25u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364626/original/file-20201021-23-axu25u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364626/original/file-20201021-23-axu25u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We can regather ourselves, ‘like a wave rolling from the shore back to its ocean source’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Advocates of solitude hence stress how, with fewer preoccupations, we can reconnect to aspects of ourselves we usually don’t have time for. This may not always be pleasant. But periodically reassessing who we are, even when it throws up confronting desires, harrowing fears or humbling insights, may be renewing.</p>
<p>This value of solitude as a test explains why, in many cultures, rites of passage involve periods of enforced withdrawal from the wider group. If a person can’t be content in their own company, the odds are they will not be happy around others either, as the Stoic Epictetus <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0237%3Atext%3Ddisc%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D12">observed</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-would-seneca-say-six-stoic-tips-for-surviving-lockdown-144346">What would Seneca say? Six Stoic tips for surviving lockdown</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364620/original/file-20201021-15-1xg30fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364620/original/file-20201021-15-1xg30fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364620/original/file-20201021-15-1xg30fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364620/original/file-20201021-15-1xg30fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364620/original/file-20201021-15-1xg30fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364620/original/file-20201021-15-1xg30fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364620/original/file-20201021-15-1xg30fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364620/original/file-20201021-15-1xg30fp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Enforced isolation on one’s own can have benefits.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Finding your ‘inner citadel’</h2>
<p>Solitude can enable us to recharge. As Montaigne <a href="https://www.theculturium.com/michel-de-montaigne-on-solitude/">joked</a>, it allows you to take a step back from ordinary life, the better to leap into it next time. It also enables us to cultivate a valuable inner distance from the pressures, shocks and follies that usually beset us.</p>
<p>“We should have wives, children, property and, above all, good health,” Montaigne <a href="https://www.theculturium.com/michel-de-montaigne-on-solitude/">observed</a>. But also, metaphorically, “We should set aside a room, just for ourselves, at the back of the shop, keeping it entirely free and establishing there our true liberty, our principal solitude and asylum …”</p>
<p>The Roman emperor and thinker Marcus Aurelius called such a virtual back room an “<a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Antoninus/meditations.4.four.html">inner citadel</a>” to which the wise person could retreat, retiring into his own soul.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-how-marcus-aurelius-meditations-can-help-us-in-a-time-of-pandemic-142659">Guide to the Classics: how Marcus Aurelius' Meditations can help us in a time of pandemic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>4. Seeing the bigger picture</h2>
<p>In ordinary life, the horizons of our concern are practical and short-range. We are too busy to take stock — fearing and desiring what is coming up today, next week, next month or next year. </p>
<p>Ferried along in this way, years can pass without our noticing. </p>
<p>Solitude gives us the means to recall the bigger picture: our lives are quietly passing by; there are good people who we too often take for granted; we have neglected many things we deeply wanted to do and Nature or God (if we are religious) is far more awe inspiring than we usually credit. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364627/original/file-20201021-19-22vhwm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364627/original/file-20201021-19-22vhwm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364627/original/file-20201021-19-22vhwm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364627/original/file-20201021-19-22vhwm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364627/original/file-20201021-19-22vhwm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364627/original/file-20201021-19-22vhwm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1065&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364627/original/file-20201021-19-22vhwm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1065&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364627/original/file-20201021-19-22vhwm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1065&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Arnold van Westerhout, Portrait of John of the Cross (1719).</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indeed, many sources suggest it is only through being alone that the highest truths become accessible to the seeker.</p>
<p>As the mystic <a href="https://essene.com/B%27nai-Amen/j-saying.htm">St John of the Cross</a> reported: “The very pure spirit does not bother about the regard of others or human respect, but communes inwardly with God, alone and in solitude as to all forms, and with delightful tranquillity, for the knowledge of God is received in divine silence”.</p>
<p>It is for these reasons that holy men and women from diverse global traditions have withdrawn into the desert, as Christ did, or onto isolated heights, as did Mohammad in the Quran or Moses in Exodus.</p>
<p>Of course, most of us will not emerge from the pandemic convinced solitaries. It is natural to long for the many goods of human connection. </p>
<p>But one unlikely benefit of 2020 for some harried moderns may be gaining insight into why older cultures valued time alone so highly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147440/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Sharpe works at Deakin. He has in the past received ARC funding on the history of the idea of philosophy as a way of life. </span></em></p>Western thinkers have long valued time alone as a form of inner rejuvenation. Here, then, are four benefits to solitude.Matthew Sharpe, Associate Professor in Philosophy, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1443462020-08-18T20:09:56Z2020-08-18T20:09:56ZWhat would Seneca say? Six Stoic tips for surviving lockdown<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353327/original/file-20200818-16-1oux7jr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C65%2C5409%2C3370&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Melbourne's State Library under lockdown. The wisdom of Seneca can help us through this difficult time.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Ross/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>To live through a pandemic, Albert Camus <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Plague#:%7E:text=The%20Plague%20%28French%3A%20La%20Peste%29%20is%20a%20novel,through%20the%20author%27s%20distinctive%20absurdist%20point%20of%20view.">wrote</a>, is to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-albert-camus-the-plague-134244">made to live as an exile</a>. Lovers are parted from lovers, (grand)parents from children, families from their dead. And we are exiled from many things we enjoy: freedom of movement, the ability to eat out or swim at public pools … </p>
<p>In such times, older wisdom traditions can be helpful. The <a href="https://dailystoic.com/what-is-stoicism-a-definition-3-stoic-exercises-to-get-you-started/">ancient Stoics</a> wrote extensively about facing death, grief, illness, exile and other adversities. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_the_Younger">Roman Stoic Seneca</a> (4-65 CE), philosopher-counsellor to the emperor Nero, is the author of many letters and dialogues on subjects as diverse as the natural world and virtues like constancy and clemency. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353337/original/file-20200818-22-1kjgyqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353337/original/file-20200818-22-1kjgyqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353337/original/file-20200818-22-1kjgyqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353337/original/file-20200818-22-1kjgyqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353337/original/file-20200818-22-1kjgyqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353337/original/file-20200818-22-1kjgyqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1148&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353337/original/file-20200818-22-1kjgyqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1148&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353337/original/file-20200818-22-1kjgyqa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1148&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When he was exiled by the Emperor Claudius in 41 CE, a fate he would share with several Stoics in this period, Seneca wrote a consolation to <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Of_Consolation:_To_Helvia">his mother</a> to help <em>her</em> deal with his absence. </p>
<p>A basic idea Seneca shares with other Stoics like <a href="https://iep.utm.edu/musonius/#:%7E:text=Musonius%20insisted%20that%20exile%2C%20poverty%2C%20physical%20injury%2C%20and,anyone%20for%20any%20such%20acts%2C%20according%20to%20Musonius.">Musonius Rufus</a> and <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epictetus/">Epictetus</a>, is that it is <a href="https://d3gxp3iknbs7bs.cloudfront.net/attachments/1300bbff1d16046c7edbfb96a49efd229676b0a5.pdf">not events</a> in the world by themselves that make people suffer. The ideas we form about these events also matter. Our ideas filter what we experience. So, if through reflection, meditation, and reasoning we can change these filters, our experience of the world will alter.</p>
<p>Even the most fortunate people need to learn how to respond when things don’t go as they wish. Here are six counsels a Stoic like Seneca might offer those in lockdown or isolation today.</p>
<h2>Work with what we can change</h2>
<p>Lamenting what we can’t change is understandable, but not effective. We can’t change that COVID-19 exists. We can change how we respond to it. We can stay home, wear masks when we go out, practise social distancing and remind ourselves that these personal inconveniences are there to protect others as well as ourselves — using this as an opportunity to grow our sense of service and community.</p>
<h2>Be sure</h2>
<p>One way to minimise anger, <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Of_Anger/Book_III">Seneca argues</a>, is to limit your concerns to what you know for sure. If someone tells you something nasty about a third party, you should check whether it is true before leaping to an emotional judgement. In the same way, if you read something on the internet alleging a conspiracy, before accepting it as true, ask yourself whether you know it for sure. If the answer is “no”, then don’t jump to conclusions. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-how-marcus-aurelius-meditations-can-help-us-in-a-time-of-pandemic-142659">Guide to the Classics: how Marcus Aurelius' Meditations can help us in a time of pandemic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Take an expanded view</h2>
<p>The Stoics noticed that we make our hardships worse when we imagine that they are exceptional. So, it puts things in perspective <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Of_Consolation:_To_Marcia">to remember</a> other generations have suffered wars spanning decades, and worse plagues than we are experiencing. This is not, as Seneca writes: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>to teach you that this often befalls people […] but to let you know that there have been many who have lightened their misfortunes by patient endurance of them. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Things could be worse. Other individuals, every day, face far greater hardships than we are facing. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353296/original/file-20200818-14-10wu772.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353296/original/file-20200818-14-10wu772.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353296/original/file-20200818-14-10wu772.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353296/original/file-20200818-14-10wu772.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353296/original/file-20200818-14-10wu772.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353296/original/file-20200818-14-10wu772.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353296/original/file-20200818-14-10wu772.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353296/original/file-20200818-14-10wu772.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A plaster sculpture of Seneca, on right, and the emperor Nero by Eduardo Barrón.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Choose a model</h2>
<p>Remember that the people we most admire didn’t always have it their own way. It is their proven willingness to do the hard things for causes greater than themselves that makes them inspiring. </p>
<p>“For we are naturally disposed to admire more than anything else the man who shows fortitude in adversity,” <a href="https://tripinsurancestore.com/4/on-the-shortness-of-life.pdf">Seneca</a> observes. </p>
<p>Think of people you look up to, whether athletes, philosophers, scientists, philanthropists, and ask: how would they have responded in our situation? </p>
<h2>Premeditate the worst, hope and work for the best</h2>
<p>Stoics like Seneca knew that <a href="https://dailystoic.com/premortem/#:%7E:text=It%20dates%20back%20many%20thousands%20of%20years%2C%20in,rehearsing%20his%20plans%2C%20say%2C%20to%20take%20a%20trip.">our fear and negative emotions strike us hardest</a> when something happens for which we aren’t prepared. </p>
<p>For this reason, they advise us to imaginatively rehearse how we will respond to the worst possible outcomes in advance (like, say, Melbourne’s hard lockdown lasting until December or January). </p>
<p>Forewarned is forearmed. The flipside is that when the worst (hopefully) doesn’t transpire, you can savour the fact that things are comparatively good.</p>
<h2>Enjoy what is (still) in our power</h2>
<p>Remember that if we can’t do many things right now, we can still do others. “I am as joyous and cheerful as in my best days,” Seneca reassures his mum from exile in Corsica:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>indeed these days are my best, because my mind is relieved from all pressure of business and is at leisure to attend to its own affairs, and at one time amuses itself with lighter studies, at another eagerly presses its inquiries into its own nature and that of the universe […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We can’t all be Senecas. But being stuck at home doesn’t stop us from loving, reading, studying, laughing (including at ourselves), listening to music, watching good TV, having great conversations, trying to be patient with our kids […]</p>
<p>“The good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished,” <a href="https://www.bartleby.com/3/1/5.html">said Seneca</a>, “but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired,” because they depend on us. </p>
<p>No one wishes for adversity, but Stoic philosophy can help us overcome it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144346/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Sharpe works for Deakin. He has in the past (2014-19) received ARC moneys on reinventing the idea of philosophy as a way of life.</span></em></p>The Roman Stoic Seneca is the author of many letters and dialogues that can help us overcome adversity.Matthew Sharpe, Associate Professor in Philosophy, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1426592020-07-22T19:51:59Z2020-07-22T19:51:59ZGuide to the Classics: how Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations can help us in a time of pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348528/original/file-20200721-33-1pbmock.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome's Piazza del Campidoglio.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jean-Pol Grandmont/Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Marcus Aurelius was no stranger to pandemics. For 16 years of his <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781444311075.oth1">reign</a> as Roman Emperor (161-180 CE), the empire was ravaged by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonine_Plague#:%7E:text=The%20Antonine%20Plague%20of%20165%20to%20180%20AD%2C,troops%20returning%20from%20campaigns%20in%20the%20Near%20East.">Antonine plague</a>, which took five million lives. </p>
<p>It was during this period that the philosopher king penned a series of “notes to himself”. Unpublished during his lifetime and found untitled with his mortal remains, this work has come to be called his Meditations.</p>
<p>Described by philosopher and biblical scholar <a href="https://ccel.org/ccel/renan/marcus/marcus.xix.html">Ernst Renan</a> as “a gospel for those who do not believe in the supernatural,” the Meditations is a series of fragments, aphorisms, arguments, and injunctions. They were written at different moments in the final years of Marcus’ life. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348521/original/file-20200721-63094-7v4i0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348521/original/file-20200721-63094-7v4i0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348521/original/file-20200721-63094-7v4i0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348521/original/file-20200721-63094-7v4i0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348521/original/file-20200721-63094-7v4i0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348521/original/file-20200721-63094-7v4i0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1159&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348521/original/file-20200721-63094-7v4i0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1159&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348521/original/file-20200721-63094-7v4i0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1159&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As its <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Thoughts_of_the_Emperor_Marcus_Aurelius_Antoninus/Book_I">opening book</a> makes clear, Marcus had been converted to the philosophy of <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism/">Stoicism</a> at a young age. Like its great ancient competitor <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Epicureanism">Epicureanism</a>, Stoicism was more than a set of doctrines explaining the world and human nature. </p>
<p>Stoicism also demanded from its students a transformed <a href="https://www.iep.utm.edu/hadot/#:%7E:text=Pierre%20Hadot%2C%20classical%20philosopher%20and%20historian%20of%20philosophy%2C,classical%20studies%20and%20on%20thinkers%2C%20including%20Michel%20Foucault.">attitude to life</a>. Many Stoic texts prescribe <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Practicing-Stoic-Philosophical-Users-Manual/dp/1567926118/ref=pd_lpo_14_t_0/138-9953380-2492116?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1567926118&pd_rd_r=ed3ad854-ed02-444a-89bc-beee2c35606a&pd_rd_w=NQ42e&pd_rd_wg=zAKzZ&pf_rd_p=7b36d496-f366-4631-94d3-61b87b52511b&pf_rd_r=E8WS542TMRFTKR58QP94&psc=1&refRID=E8WS542TMRFTKR58QP94">practical exercises</a> to reshape how a person responds to adversity and prosperity, insults, illness, old age, and mortality. </p>
<p>This practical dimension to Stoic philosophy underlies its extraordinary global rebirth in the new millennium, even before COVID-19. So, what can Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations <a href="https://www.amazon.com/How-Think-Like-Roman-Emperor/dp/1250196620">tell us today</a>, in our time of pandemic? </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stoicism-5-0-the-unlikely-21st-century-reboot-of-an-ancient-philosophy-80986">Stoicism 5.0: The unlikely 21st century reboot of an ancient philosophy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A kind of lockdown</h2>
<p>The Meditations comprises over 400 fragments, divided into 12 books. These disparate fragments are shaped by a few core philosophical principles. At the basis of these principles is the fundamental Stoic distinction expressed most clearly by the emancipated slave turned philosopher, <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html">Epictetus</a>, whom Marcus greatly admired: that some things depend upon us and others do not. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348208/original/file-20200718-27-4wx5tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348208/original/file-20200718-27-4wx5tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348208/original/file-20200718-27-4wx5tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348208/original/file-20200718-27-4wx5tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348208/original/file-20200718-27-4wx5tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1335&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348208/original/file-20200718-27-4wx5tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348208/original/file-20200718-27-4wx5tl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1335&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Epictetus, the crippled slave who became one of Rome’s leading Stoic philosophers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In fact, of all the things in the world, we can only directly control what we do, think, choose, desire, and fear.</p>
<p>Everything else, including everything our society tells us that we need to “get a life” – riches, property, fame, promotions – depends on others and on fortune. It is here today and gone tomorrow, and it is usually distributed unfairly. </p>
<p>So to pin our dreams on achieving such things makes our happiness and peace of mind a highly uncertain prospect. </p>
<p>The Stoics <a href="https://www.iep.utm.edu/stoiceth/#:%7E:text=The%20Stoics%20held%20that%20virtue%20is%20the%20only,happiness%3B%20it%20in%20no%20way%20depends%20on%20luck.">propose</a> that what they call “virtue” is the only good. And this virtue consists above all in knowing how best to respond to the things that befall us, rather than fretting about things we cannot control. </p>
<p>For Marcus, all those “goods” that markets trade, and our contemporary advertisements hawk, are “<a href="https://dailystoic.com/stoicism-indifference/">indifferent</a>”. It is what you do with the pleasurable things, and with the difficulties you face, that shapes how happy or unhappy you will be. </p>
<p>It is almost as if Stoicism asks of us a kind of “virtual lockdown”, anticipating the actual one some of us are currently experiencing. The inability to go swimming, or to the football, gym, or movies, is for the Stoic regrettable. But it isn’t devastating. For s/he has weighed such preferable external things at their relative value. </p>
<p>“Wherever it is possible to live, it is possible to live well”, Marcus <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Thoughts_of_the_Emperor_Marcus_Aurelius_Antoninus/Book_V">affirms</a>. </p>
<p>None of us chose the pandemic. But each of us can strive to exercise courage in facing it, generosity in helping others, and resilience before the challenges it presents. </p>
<h2>‘Only the present’</h2>
<p>“Things do not touch the soul,” <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Thoughts_of_the_Emperor_Marcus_Aurelius_Antoninus/Book_IV">Marcus writes</a>: “our perturbations come only from the opinion which is within”. And our opinions can, with hard work, be reformed. For they depend upon us. </p>
<p>This is the Stoic “good news”. Pandemics, bullies, and mischances really can rob us of our money, our jobs, our reputations. If they are malign enough, they affect our physical health. But they cannot change our minds. They cannot make us commit evil actions. They are powerless to even compel us to think resentful or hateful things about our fellows. </p>
<p>If it becomes clear, for instance, that someone has back-stabbed you, Marcus <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Thoughts_of_the_Emperor_Marcus_Aurelius_Antoninus/Book_VII">advises</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Pronounce no more to yourself, beyond what the appearances directly declare. It is said to you that someone has spoken ill of you. This alone is told you, and not that you are hurt by it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If what your insulter has said is true, then change. If what they have said is false, it does not merit your being upset by it. If they have betrayed your trust, the shame and the fault lies with them. </p>
<p>“The best revenge,” <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Thoughts_of_the_Emperor_Marcus_Aurelius_Antoninus/Book_VI">Marcus counsels</a>, “is not to become like the wrongdoer”.</p>
<p>Yes, we might reply, but what about truly enormous situations like COVID-19, or the end of a life-shaping relationship, or the illnesses of loved ones?</p>
<p>The Stoic principle of focusing only on what depends upon us operates here too. Worries carry our minds away into the future. Unless we watch ourselves, we can quickly find ourselves imagining the worst – the death of friends and family, a second great depression, the end of a career … </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348207/original/file-20200718-23-f0d4cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348207/original/file-20200718-23-f0d4cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348207/original/file-20200718-23-f0d4cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348207/original/file-20200718-23-f0d4cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348207/original/file-20200718-23-f0d4cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348207/original/file-20200718-23-f0d4cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348207/original/file-20200718-23-f0d4cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348207/original/file-20200718-23-f0d4cw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marcus Aurelius Distributing Bread To the People, by Joseph-Marie Vien (1765).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All of these things may come to pass. Or they may not. But, just now, we cannot immediately avert them. What depends on us right now, always, is what we think and do. And there is, for the Stoic, a comfort in this. As Marcus <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Thoughts_of_the_Emperor_Marcus_Aurelius_Antoninus/Book_VIII">reminds himself</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Do not disturb yourself by thinking of your whole life. Don’t let your thoughts all at once embrace all the various troubles which may … befall you: but on every occasion ask yourself: What is there in this which is intolerable and past bearing? For you will be ashamed to confess. Next, remember that neither the future nor the past pains you, but only the present.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The parallels between this attitude and other spiritual traditions, notably <a href="https://dailystoic.com/stoicism-buddhism/">Buddhism</a>, are clear. For Marcus, the inner life of the wise person will be as serene as an open sky, <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Thoughts_of_the_Emperor_Marcus_Aurelius_Antoninus/Book_X">even under fire</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>He is content with two things: to accomplish the present action with justice, and to love the fate which has been allotted to him, here and now.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Does this mean then, that we should just accept the worst, rather than struggling to prevent it?</p>
<p>No: we each have a small range of things we can do and influence at any time. We can increase our understanding, start new initiatives, form or join groups, advocate and persuade others to the best of our powers. </p>
<p>But Marcus asks us also to recognise this: however great and urgent the causes we take up, any positive change will always consist of a lot of small decisions, each taken in the present moment. </p>
<p>And each of these decisions is more likely to be efficacious if we can calmly and clearly assess what is possible, rather than giving way to anxiety, fear, hatred or despair.</p>
<h2>A soul’s secrets</h2>
<p>Unlike much philosophy, the meditations of Marcus are mostly easy to grasp. The philosopher-emperor writes beautifully, with an honesty that can be affecting. </p>
<p>The difficulty lies in really applying these simple, often striking ideas to our lives. </p>
<p>It is (alas) somewhat easier to see why it is right to serenely bear misfortunes and forbear others’ flaws; to <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Thoughts_of_the_Emperor_Marcus_Aurelius_Antoninus/Book_II">remember</a> that “we are made for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids”; and not to fear death but <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Thoughts_of_the_Emperor_Marcus_Aurelius_Antoninus/Book_IV">embrace life</a> in full awareness of one’s mortality, than to do these things in the heat of the moment.</p>
<p>This is why the traditional title, Meditations, is telling. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348210/original/file-20200718-37-1nb6z3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348210/original/file-20200718-37-1nb6z3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348210/original/file-20200718-37-1nb6z3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348210/original/file-20200718-37-1nb6z3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=796&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348210/original/file-20200718-37-1nb6z3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348210/original/file-20200718-37-1nb6z3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348210/original/file-20200718-37-1nb6z3r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1000&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Roman bust of Marcus Aurelius.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Readers who go to this classic expecting an ordered, linear philosophical argument will be quickly disillusioned. There are many repetitions and seeming hesitations. Many key Stoic ideas, and Marcus’ own preoccupations (for instance, with how to respond to schemers, and accept his own death) return multiple times. He reformulates his ideas in new ways, striving to find their most compelling expression. </p>
<p>Indeed the Meditations, as scholar Pierre Hadot has <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674007079&content=reviews">argued</a>, need to be seen as an exemplar of a particular Stoic exercise, <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/discourses.1.one.html">explicitly prescribed</a> by Epictetus. This involved writing key precepts down as a means to later recall them and to deeply internalise them as philosophical aids to call upon at need. </p>
<p>All this makes the Meditations the singular classic that it is. Or, in Hadot’s moving <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674007079&content=reviews">words</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In world literature one finds lots of preachers, lesson-givers, and censors, who moralise to others with complacency, irony, cynicism, or bitterness; but it is extremely rare to find a person training himself to live and to think like a human being … </p>
</blockquote>
<p>We feel “a highly particular emotion”, Hadot continues, as we witness Marcus trying, as we each do, “to live in complete consciousness and lucidity; to give each of our instants its fullest intensity; and to give meaning to our entire life”.</p>
<p>“Marcus is talking to himself”, Hadot observes, “but we get the impression that he is talking to each one of us”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142659/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Sharpe works for Deakin University. He has in the past received Australian Research Council moneys for research on the history of the idea of philosophy as a way of life.</span></em></p>The Meditations, by Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius, has been described as an ageless, secular gospel. Written in a time of pandemic, it speaks powerfully to us today.Matthew Sharpe, Associate Professor in Philosophy, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1291072020-01-02T09:36:50Z2020-01-02T09:36:50ZHow to rethink your idea of success in the new year – according to ancient Stoic philosophers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307741/original/file-20191218-11909-lv77ja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C25%2C3407%2C2253&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hitting the target is out of your control so focus on mastering the technique.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/back-archery-athlete-aiming-target-distance-556528312">Carlos Caetano/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What are you hoping for in the new year? Do you want to progress in your career or perhaps buy a house? Maybe you’re looking to start a new relationship or finally achieve that pay rise?</p>
<p>While there’s nothing inherently wrong with pursuing any of these things, by attaching your sense of self-worth to these kinds of external successes, the road ahead can be fraught with danger. So with the help of the philosophy of the ancient Stoics, it’s time to rethink what’s worth chasing.</p>
<p>By fixating on external successes, most of us <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/smarter-living/why-you-should-stop-being-so-hard-on-yourself.html">end up thinking</a> that if we don’t achieve these goals, we’ve failed. We often think, “if only I were more determined or worked harder, then I’d fulfil all my ambitions, because if I don’t, I’ve only got myself to blame”. </p>
<p>So what’s the trick to avoiding this trap? The answer could very well lie in the ancient Stoics, who <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=D7jCBQAAQBAJ">put forward several ideas</a> that suggest a different way of thinking.</p>
<p>Stoicism is a philosophy that was founded in Athens in the early third century BC. <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism/#Eth">Stoics believe</a> that virtue (such as wisdom) is happiness, judgement should be based on behaviour, rather than words, and that we don’t control and cannot rely on external events, only ourselves and our responses.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/want-to-be-happy-then-live-like-a-stoic-for-a-week-103117">Want to be happy? Then live like a Stoic for a week</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>So as you set your goals or resolutions for 2020, here are the three key Stoic ideas that could help you to think differently.</p>
<h2>1. Much of what happens is out of your control</h2>
<p>Although we can certainly contribute to outcomes, such as doing our best in a job interview, we can never completely control the result. Our performance in the interview may be excellent, but the outcome will be as much determined by how the other candidates do and how the interviewer feels on the day.</p>
<p>If you tie your sense of success and self-worth to something out of your control, then you are turning your happiness into a hostage to fortune. That’s not a good position to be in, but something can be done about it. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307743/original/file-20191218-11919-1yv85pg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307743/original/file-20191218-11919-1yv85pg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307743/original/file-20191218-11919-1yv85pg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307743/original/file-20191218-11919-1yv85pg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307743/original/file-20191218-11919-1yv85pg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307743/original/file-20191218-11919-1yv85pg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307743/original/file-20191218-11919-1yv85pg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If you don’t get the job, don’t self-blame.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/business-people-waiting-job-interview-447401257">Tsyhun/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Focus on the activity, not the outcome</h2>
<p>The Stoics drew <a href="https://modernstoicism.com/stoicism-and-the-art-of-archery/">an analogy with archery</a>. As absurd as it might sound, the goal of archery isn’t about hitting the target, but simply to shoot well.</p>
<p>Hitting the target is out of your control – a gust of wind might blow the arrow off course. So instead, you should focus on mastering the technique of archery. That won’t guarantee you’ll always hit the target – there will still be gusts of wind – but it will increase the likelihood of hitting it more often.</p>
<p>Most importantly, the goal of shooting arrows as best we can is completely within our control, and no annoying side winds can stop us from achieving that. Thinking along these lines helps us to bring our happiness back within our control.</p>
<h2>3. True value resides inside, not outside</h2>
<p>The Stoics would argue that getting that new job, promotion, or pay rise is not genuinely good. Why? Because even if you get it, you might still be unhappy or unfulfilled. It might even make things worse – more responsibility, more stress, greater expectations. Or it might be quickly forgotten as you focus your attention on climbing up the next rung of the ladder.</p>
<p>The Stoics insisted that, for something to be good, it must always benefit us. And they suggested that there’s only one thing that always benefits us when we have it: a calm, rational and consistent mind. This is where real value lies. </p>
<p>So for 2020, try to forget the external ambitions that you can’t control and instead focus on cultivating the right frame of mind, such as the desire to do whatever you’re doing as well as you can, simply for the satisfaction of doing it well, without any thought for further reward. </p>
<p>That’s an ambition completely within your control. Nothing can stop you, and you can be the master of your own success this coming year.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129107/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Sellars does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In 2020, try to forget external ambitions you can’t control and focus instead on cultivating the right frame of mind.John Sellars, Lecturer in Philosophy, Royal Holloway University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1031172018-09-28T07:58:09Z2018-09-28T07:58:09ZWant to be happy? Then live like a Stoic for a week<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236838/original/file-20180918-158234-99irw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cute-portrayal-range-different-emotions-1023568351?src=n3Zv9ExUpvtVUhG-hoitOQ-1-1">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What have the Romans ever done for us? Well, obviously the roads – the roads go without saying. How about guidance for how to live in the 21st century? That seems less likely, but in fact the last few years have seen a flurry of interest in the work of three Roman Stoic philosophers who offered just that. They were Seneca, tutor to the Emperor Nero; Epictetus, a former slave; and Marcus Aurelius, himself emperor. </p>
<p>Modern books drawing on their ideas and repackaged as guidance for how to live well today include <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5617966-a-guide-to-the-good-life">A Guide to the Good Life</a> by William Irvine, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17841317-stoicism-and-the-art-of-happiness">Stoicism and the Art of Happiness</a> by Donald Robertson, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29093292-the-daily-stoic">The Daily Stoic</a> by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman, and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31423245-how-to-be-a-stoic">How to Be a Stoic</a> by Massimo Pigliucci. What all these books share is the conviction that people can benefit by going back and looking at the ideas of these Roman Stoics. There’s even an <a href="https://learn.modernstoicism.com/p/stoic-week">annual week</a> dedicated to Stoicism. </p>
<p>Stoicism holds that the key to a good, happy life is the cultivation of an excellent mental state, which the Stoics identified with virtue and being rational. The ideal life is one that is in harmony with Nature, of which we are all part, and an attitude of calm indifference towards external events. It began in Greece, and was founded around 300BC by Zeno, who used teach at the site of the Painted Stoa in Athens, hence the name Stoicism. The works of the early Stoics are for the most part lost, so it is the Roman Stoics who have been most influential over the centuries, and continue to be today.</p>
<h2>Control how you think</h2>
<p>So, what were the ideas? Two foundational principles can both be found in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enchiridion_of_Epictetus">the Handbook</a>, a short work <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html">summarising the ideas</a> of Epictetus. The first is that some things are within our control and some are not, and that much of our unhappiness is caused by thinking that we can control things that, in fact, we can’t. </p>
<p>What can we control? Epictetus argues that we actually control very little. We don’t control what happens to us, we can’t control what the people around us say or do, and we can’t even fully control our own bodies, which get damaged and sick and ultimately die without regard for our preferences. The only thing that we really control is how we think about things, the judgements we make about things. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236844/original/file-20180918-158246-14yi0si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236844/original/file-20180918-158246-14yi0si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236844/original/file-20180918-158246-14yi0si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236844/original/file-20180918-158246-14yi0si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236844/original/file-20180918-158246-14yi0si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236844/original/file-20180918-158246-14yi0si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236844/original/file-20180918-158246-14yi0si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">You control how you react.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/business-concept-vector-illustration-human-head-789686476?src=gdzVPU8NzNQSTIlwmNIjNQ-1-3">rudall30/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This leads us to the second foundational principle from Epictetus: it’s not things that upset us, but how we think about things. Stuff happens. We then make judgements about what happens. If we judge that something really bad has happened, then we might get upset, sad, or angry, depending on what it is. If we judge that something bad is likely to happen then we might get scared or fearful. All these emotions are the product of the judgements we make. Things in themselves are value neutral, for what might seem terrible to us might be a matter of indifference to someone else, or even welcomed by others. It’s the judgements we make that introduce value into the picture, and it’s those value judgements that generate our emotional responses. </p>
<p>The good Stoic news is that these value judgements are the one thing over which we have complete control. Things happen, none of which are inherently good or bad, and it’s within our power to decide how we value them. The paradox of Stoicism, as Epictetus formulates it, is that we have almost no control over anything, yet at the same time we have potentially complete control over our happiness.</p>
<h2>Train your mind</h2>
<p>At first glance, this might seem to understate the very real challenges that people face in their daily lives. How can just thinking differently help someone who is struggling to put food on their table, for instance? The Stoics didn’t shy away from this. They fully acknowledged that life can be hard sometimes. </p>
<p>Seneca knew this all too well: he suffered exile, multiple bereavements, and was ultimately forced to commit suicide by Nero. He also knew that it was all too easy to say “I’m not going to let these external things disturb me” but quite another to follow through and not be disturbed oneself. </p>
<p>So the Stoics developed a whole series of practical exercises designed to help train people to incorporate Stoic ideas into their daily lives. Seneca recommended taking stock at the end of each day, noting when you become irritated by something trivial, or act angrily in response to someone who perhaps didn’t deserve it, and so on. By noting his mistakes, he hoped to do better the next day. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236492/original/file-20180915-177941-1vncsac.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C109%2C1536%2C1156&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236492/original/file-20180915-177941-1vncsac.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236492/original/file-20180915-177941-1vncsac.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236492/original/file-20180915-177941-1vncsac.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236492/original/file-20180915-177941-1vncsac.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236492/original/file-20180915-177941-1vncsac.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236492/original/file-20180915-177941-1vncsac.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marcus Aurelius writing his Meditations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Marcus Aurelius had another strategy, reminding himself each morning that he was probably going to encounter a lot of angry, stressed, impatient, ungrateful people during the coming day. By reflecting on this in advance, the hope was that he would be less likely to respond in kind. But he also reflected on the fact that none of these people would be like this intentionally. They were the victims of their own mistaken judgements. </p>
<p>Here we get another paradox: no one chooses to be unhappy, stressed, angry, miserable, and yet these are in fact all the product of our judgements, the one thing within our control. </p>
<h2>Accept what happens</h2>
<p>Another Stoic strategy is to remind ourselves of our relative unimportance. The world does not revolve around us. Aurelius regularly reflected in his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditations">Meditations</a> on the vastness of the universe and the infinity of time stretching into the past and future, in order to put his own short life into wider context. </p>
<p>Our lives are but moments when placed within this cosmic perspective. Given this, why should we expect the universe to deliver whatever it is that we might happen to want? On the contrary, it would be absurd to expect it to conform to our will. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236841/original/file-20180918-158243-1ffq3gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236841/original/file-20180918-158243-1ffq3gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236841/original/file-20180918-158243-1ffq3gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236841/original/file-20180918-158243-1ffq3gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236841/original/file-20180918-158243-1ffq3gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236841/original/file-20180918-158243-1ffq3gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236841/original/file-20180918-158243-1ffq3gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Take a cosmic perspective.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/girl-watching-space-stars-digital-illustration-258738323?src=7QDB6oPy731i-hUtsfwI2w-1-31">AstroStar/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As Epictetus put it, if you expect the universe to deliver what you want, you are going to be disappointed, but if you embrace whatever the universe gives, then life will be a whole lot smoother. Again, this is easier said than done, but more and more people are taking note of this Stoic advice and working hard to incorporate it into their daily lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103117/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Sellars is a member of Modern Stoicism, a non-profit organisation that runs Stoic Week and organises Stoicon events.</span></em></p>What a group of ancient Roman philosophers can teach you about how to live in the 21st century.John Sellars, Lecturer in Philosophy, Royal Holloway University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1017192018-09-17T10:51:36Z2018-09-17T10:51:36ZCatastrophe overload? Read philosophers and poetry instead of headlines<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236504/original/file-20180915-177968-h8p4ke.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Read poetry.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Priscilla Du Preez/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For almost two years now, Americans have been confronted daily by ominous tidings. We are living through stressful times. Reading the news feels awful; ignoring it doesn’t feel right either.</p>
<p>Psychologist Terri Apter <a href="https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/grenfell-tower-terri-apter/">recently wrote about</a> the “phenomenon in human behavior sometimes described as ‘the hive switch,’ where "catastrophic events eliminate selfishness, conflict and competitiveness, rendering humans as co-operative as ultra-social bees.”</p>
<p>But if hurricanes, earthquakes or volcanoes trigger the hive switch, does this principle hold for man-made catastrophes? </p>
<p>What about the immigration policy that has been separating children from their parents? School shootings, suicides, ecological disaster? </p>
<p>What about the flood of frightening and infuriating news that splashes against us daily?</p>
<p>In response to all this, people are hardly swarming into a cooperative hive. On the contrary, our human qualities of imagination, alertness and compassion seem to be turning against us. To imagine the suffering of our fellow beings and the future of our beleaguered planet provokes rage, dread and an overwhelming sense of helplessness.</p>
<p>What, if anything, can we do?</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235693/original/file-20180910-123122-lt9c5s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235693/original/file-20180910-123122-lt9c5s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235693/original/file-20180910-123122-lt9c5s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235693/original/file-20180910-123122-lt9c5s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235693/original/file-20180910-123122-lt9c5s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235693/original/file-20180910-123122-lt9c5s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235693/original/file-20180910-123122-lt9c5s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Seneca has answers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27620840">Jean-Pol GRANDMONT</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Listen to Seneca and Epictetus</h2>
<p>Rage and dread can morph into political activism, but it’s hard not to feel that any change is too little and too late. </p>
<p>The children who have been separated from their parents, for example, even if they’re all reunited, which doesn’t seem likely, will bear the psychic scars for the rest of their lives, as physician Danielle Ofri has <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2018/06/as-a-doctor-i-see-child-separation-as-a-medical-emergency.html">pointed out eloquently in Slate</a>. </p>
<p>How should people react to <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-suicide-on-the-rise-in-the-us-but-falling-in-most-of-europe-98366">rising suicide rates</a>? Perhaps, judging from much recent coverage, the most we can hope to do is muster enough insight and hindsight to try to prevent the next one. </p>
<p>Yet this spring’s exhaustive coverage of a <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/ct-celebrity-suicides-midlife-20180611-story.html">pair of celebrity suicides</a> – Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade – sent me back to the <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism">Stoic philosophers</a>, thinkers who flourished, particularly in Rome, in the first and second centuries. Uninterested in abstruse speculations, these philosophers stressed ethics and virtue; they were concerned with how to live and how to die. Stoic psychology offered and still offers help working with the mind to calm our anxieties and help us to fulfill our function as human beings.</p>
<p>Both Bourdain and Spade, creative and successful personalities, icons of glamour and achievement – particularly Bourdain, whose restless and courageous explorations of various corners of the world inspired countless viewers and readers – turned out to have been vulnerable people. </p>
<p>William B. Irvine, whose 2009 <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Guide_to_the_Good_Life.html?id=yQ59JV_9AfIC">“A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy</a>” I’ve been rereading, usefully distills from his four favorite Stoic writers, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lucius-Annaeus-Seneca-Roman-philosopher-and-statesman">Seneca</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Epictetus-Greek-philosopher">Epictetus</a>, <a href="https://www.iep.utm.edu/musonius/">Musonius Rufus</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marcus-Aurelius-Roman-emperor">Marcus Aurelius</a>, two salient Stoic techniques for combating dark thoughts. I’ll continue this teaching tradition by distilling Irvine.</p>
<p>The advice of writers like Seneca and Epictetus feels remarkably germane. The kinds of misery that are often mentioned in connection with suicidal impulses, such as fear and anxiety, are perennial components of the human condition. When we speak of a suicidal person wrestling with demons <a href="http://www.historydisclosure.com/word-demon-come/">– a word as old as Homer –</a> that’s what we’re talking about. </p>
<p>The Stoics teach that you can try to counter your demons – not with talk therapy, let alone pharmaceuticals, but by working with your mind. </p>
<h2>Be ready</h2>
<p>The first technique is negative visualization: Imagine the worst so as to be prepared for it. </p>
<p>Most likely the worst will never happen. The bad things that can and probably will happen are likely to be milder than the worst thing you can think of. You can feel both relieved that the worst hasn’t happened and also somewhat mentally bolstered against the worst possibility. </p>
<p>“He robs present ills of their power,” <a href="https://www.loebclassics.com/view/seneca_younger-de_consolatione_ad_marciam/1932/pb_LCL254.29.xml">wrote Seneca</a>, “who has perceived their coming beforehand.” </p>
<p>Elsewhere, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=e6pvK6SQuvgC&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=%22Trees+that+have+grown+in+a+sunny+vale+are+fragile.+It+is+therefore+to+the+advantage+of+good+men,+and+it+enables+them+to+live+without+fear,+to+be+on+terms+of+intimacy+with+danger+and+to+bear+with+serenity+a+fortune+that+is+ill+only+to+him+who+bears+it+ill.%22&source=bl&ots=_6S887Wovx&sig=cGayQvgwpH59WZqc2EWQCUrX9tU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjrnafWg7HdAhWqmuAKHZKBDYAQ6AEwAHoECAAQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22Trees%20that%20have%20grown%20in%20a%20sunny%20vale%20are%20fragile.%20It%20is%20therefore%20to%20the%20advantage%20of%20good%20men%2C%20and%20it%20enables%20them%20to%20live%20without%20fear%2C%20to%20be%20on%20terms%20of%20intimacy%20with%20danger%20and%20to%20bear%20with%20serenity%20a%20fortune%20that%20is%20ill%20only%20to%20him%20who%20bears%20it%20ill.%22&f=false">Seneca writes</a>, “Trees that have grown in a sunny vale are fragile. It is therefore to the advantage of good men, and it enables them to live without fear, to be on terms of intimacy with danger and to bear with serenity a fortune that is ill only to him who bears it ill.”</p>
<p>Much the same point is made by Edgar, disguised as Mad Tom, when he observes in “King Lear” that <a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/gopher/text/earlymodern/shakespeare/tragedy/KingLear/KingLear_ACT_IV_SCENE_I">“the worst is not/So long as we can say ‘This is the worst.’”</a> The very fact of being able to comment on how bad things are – and such bemoaning is now a daily ritual for many of us – means that we have survived.</p>
<h2>Divide and conquer – or not</h2>
<p>The second Stoic self-help technique is what Irvine calls <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-guide-to-the-good-life-9780195374612?cc=us&lang=en&">the dichotomy of control</a>: Divide situations into those you have some control over and those you have no control over. </p>
<p>Epictetus <a href="https://donaldrobertson.name/2012/12/06/the-stoic-teachings-of-zeus/">observes that</a> “Of the things that exist, Zeus has put some in our control and some not in our control. Therefore…we must concern ourselves absolutely with the things that are under our control and entrust the things not in our control to the universe.”</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235695/original/file-20180910-123131-1lfn2mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235695/original/file-20180910-123131-1lfn2mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1061&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235695/original/file-20180910-123131-1lfn2mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1061&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235695/original/file-20180910-123131-1lfn2mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1061&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235695/original/file-20180910-123131-1lfn2mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1333&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235695/original/file-20180910-123131-1lfn2mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235695/original/file-20180910-123131-1lfn2mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1333&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Epictetus has some answers, too.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The John Adams Library at the Boston Public Library</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Irvine <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-guide-to-the-good-life-9780195374612?cc=us&lang=en&">adds a third category</a>, thereby transforming the dichotomy into what he calls a trichotomy: things we have no control over, things we have complete control over and things we have some degree of control over. </p>
<p>We can’t control whether the sun rises tomorrow. </p>
<p>We can control whether we have a third bowl of ice cream, what sweater we choose to wear or whether to press SEND. </p>
<p>And, as for suicides, school shootings, agonized children torn from their parents? We can do something. We can vote, run for office, organize, contribute money or goods. In these ventures we can cooperate with our neighbors and colleagues, acting as hive-like as possible without being paralyzed by anguish.</p>
<h2>Play baseball, go to the park</h2>
<p>Those fortunate enough to experience private joy still sense the shadow of public dread. Yet joy is still joy; life still needs to be lived. </p>
<p>If we’re baseball players, we can play baseball. If we’re grandparents, we can take our grandchildren to the park. We can read – not only the news, but fiction and history that takes us out of our moment. And we can read poetry, which has the power of distilling our times, of making our moral dilemmas, if not precisely soluble, beautifully clear. </p>
<p>If we’re poets, we can write poetry – not a community venture, ordinarily, but what these days is ordinary? Public anguish makes its way into private lives, and some of the best new poetry braids public and private together. I myself both read and write poetry – both activities over which I have a good deal of control. And the poetry I’ve been reading is riveting.</p>
<p>An eloquent recent poem that encompasses the ethical dissonance between home and homelessness, safety and danger, is <a href="http://www.literarymatters.org/1-1-empathy/">A.E. Stallings’s “Empathy</a>.”</p>
<p>Interestingly, the Stoic notion of negative visualization animates the poem’s argument: how good that I and my family are snug in our beds at home and not tossing on a raft in the dark. It could be so much worse:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My love, I’m grateful tonight</p>
<p>Our listing bed isn’t a raft</p>
<p>Precariously adrift</p>
<p>As we dodge the coast-guard light…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And in its final stanza the poem unflinchingly rejects the easy notion of empathy as smug and superficial and hypocritical: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Empathy isn’t generous,</p>
<p>It’s selfish. It’s not being nice</p>
<p>To say I would pay any price</p>
<p>Not to be those who’d die to be us.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Rejecting what poet <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=_FsgAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA280&lpg=PA280&dq=%E2%80%9CPray+God+us+keep+from+single+vision+and+Newton%27s+sleep.%E2%80%9D+William+Blake&source=bl&ots=BQkaabc_fM&sig=MpVdropf-b63oi3rxllZXQJYa_k&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjw7972jbHdAhXLmuAKHXpKB_EQ6AEwAHoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9CPray%20God%20us%20keep%20from%20single%20vision%20and%20Newton's%20sleep.%E2%80%9D%20William%20Blake&f=false">William Blake called “single vision</a>,” Stallings courageously sees, and seems miraculously to write from, both sides. </p>
<p>She also manages to live on both sides. For the past year and a half, she has been doing extraordinary work with <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/144785/crossing-borders">refugee women and children in Athens</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236042/original/file-20180912-133892-12ugjrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236042/original/file-20180912-133892-12ugjrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236042/original/file-20180912-133892-12ugjrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236042/original/file-20180912-133892-12ugjrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236042/original/file-20180912-133892-12ugjrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236042/original/file-20180912-133892-12ugjrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236042/original/file-20180912-133892-12ugjrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Poet A.E. Stallings doing hand-rhymes and songs with refugee children in Athens.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: Rebecca J. Sweetman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The dark undercurrents roiling in our time can also be felt in <a href="https://newversenews.blogspot.com/2018/06/not-my-son.html">Anna Evans’s “Not My Son,”</a> a villanelle whose rhymes of “border,” “order,” “disorder,” “ignored her,” “implored, her” and “toward her” clang with ominous music.</p>
<p>Poems like “Empathy” and “Not My Son” aren’t comfortable to read, nor were they, presumably, very comfortable to write. But they represent a measure of what some of us who happen to be poets can do; and I’d rather take in the frightening news as these poets thoughtfully and eloquently present it than gobble down headlines raw. </p>
<p>My next collection will be called “Love and Dread.” The Stoics knew that dread is always part of the picture.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101719/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Hadas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From human suffering to political chicanery to environmental degradation, the tide of bad news, blared in headlines every day, seems overwhelming. One poet and classics scholar asks: What can be done?Rachel Hadas, Professor of English, Rutgers University - NewarkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/755932017-10-09T23:42:06Z2017-10-09T23:42:06ZHow the stoicism of Roman philosophers can help us deal with depression<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189210/original/file-20171006-25772-1uz37na.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The statue of Marcus Aurelius Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffd/79900576/in/photolist-84vE9-aaMVPn-nZCjjs-8m2kK8-nfBNed-GmWNKE-paZLDc-4TavMg-bW6buV-j1xiuN-6G6oyC-8c9fkp-Jmxar2-nvFF2f-eSWTiv-e8GDgQ-8TJQ3V-25WrfM-7sk448-4pez75-dqc9pW-fPG6s-fczxWL-fesjaW-eaN9th-a6W9yL-njyzY8-qcykA9-8cagXp-GmWPFC-7hwScp-3bg9x4-j1wB3f-8gqzfE-8LV5UU-7hAPas-sGqpU-68pRMc-5nquBt-dV9uiv-9RoMR6-dwmSex-ohwuYo-j1wrHn-9TW7Jz-j1z4uS-2JQuy-j1ynbA-aAyL1b-JieG9">Jeff</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Depression is on the rise. A study conducted by the World Health Organization found <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/mar/31/depression-is-leading-cause-of-disability-worldwide-says-who-study">an increase of 20 percent</a> in depression cases within just a decade.</p>
<p>I work on a university campus. One might expect such a place to feel vibrant and energetic, but lately there seems to be more fatigue and malaise. Even for me, on some days it can feel hard to face the world. </p>
<p>As a scholar of ancient philosophy and a practicing <a href="http://modernstoicism.com/">stoic</a>, I have found great solace in the works of Roman stoic philosophers such as <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/marcus/">Marcus Aurelius</a>, emperor of Rome, and <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/epictetu/">Epictetus</a>, teacher of Stoic philosophy and a former slave. </p>
<p>What tools do these ancient thinkers offer to deal with depression? </p>
<p>Of course, I must add here that clinical depression, which is a serious health issue and should be treated by a professional, is a different matter than the sort of ordinary depression and fatigue that most of us might feel from time to time.</p>
<h2>What is stoicism?</h2>
<p>Stoicism is based on the idea that the goal of life is to live in agreement with nature. Nature itself is defined as whole of the cosmos, including our fellow human beings. </p>
<p>Epictetus, whose school of Stoicism flourished in the second century A.D., <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html">tells us</a> how to pursue this idea. He says, “some things are under our control and some things aren’t under our control.” And, if something is not under our control, it is not worth expending energy on.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189212/original/file-20171006-25752-1cchn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189212/original/file-20171006-25752-1cchn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189212/original/file-20171006-25752-1cchn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189212/original/file-20171006-25752-1cchn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189212/original/file-20171006-25752-1cchn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189212/original/file-20171006-25752-1cchn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189212/original/file-20171006-25752-1cchn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/scrc/26407841620/in/photolist-5wFPY-5Sq6EH-5RMg8F-7sk448-5qhUpF-dPti48-VyRttQ-XZJCTe-Gez6h9">W&M Libraries</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nonetheless, there were days, even for these thinkers, when they found it hard to carry on with their duties. Marcus Aurelius, who, as emperor of the Roman Empire from A.D. 161-180, was the most powerful man in the world, makes clear in one of the passages of his “Meditations,” that he is struggling to get out of bed. So, he <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Antoninus/meditations.5.five.html">tells himself</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I am rising to do the work of a human being. Why, then, am I so irritable if I am going out to do what I was born to do and what I was brought into this world for? Or was I created for this, to lie in bed and warm myself under the bedclothes?” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>He also acknowledges how this exhortation may or may not be effective some days. So, even if he drags himself into the world, Marcus highlights <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Antoninus/meditations.2.two.html">what he may face</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Say to yourself at the start of the day, I shall meet with meddling, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, and unsociable people.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>While this observation may seem not very helpful, insofar as it focuses the attention on all these negative possibilities and hardships, there is a very important stoic point here. One could ask, why would reminding oneself of hardships be beneficial?</p>
<h2>Meeting the world on stoic terms</h2>
<p>Stoic philosopher Epictetus provides an answer – it can help us anticipate possibilities and prepare us for what may come. He <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html">says</a> in the “Enchiridion”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“When you are about to undertake some action, remind yourself what sort of action it is. If you are going out for a bath, put before your mind what happens at baths – there are people who splash, people who jostle, people who are insulting, people who steal. And you will undertake the action more securely if from the start you say of it, ‘I want to take a bath and to keep my choices in accord with nature’; and likewise for each action.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Epictetus’ example of the Roman bath could be adapted to a contemporary context by considering the sort of things that might happen at work, while commuting, or at home. </p>
<p>Epictetus is telling us to be prepared to face situations with a realistic attitude toward what things are really like. </p>
<p>Marcus Aurelius provides <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Antoninus/meditations.2.two.html">more specific guidelines</a> on how to respond.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I, then, can neither be harmed by these people, nor become angry with one who is akin to me, nor can I hate him, for we have come into being to work together, like feet, hands, eyelids, or the two rows of teeth in our upper and lower jaws. To work against one another is therefore contrary to nature; and to be angry with another person and turn away from him is surely to work against him.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In all this, what these philosophers are reminding us is that to live in accord with nature is to recognize that even the most difficult of those we might run into in the course of a day could be someone like us – someone perhaps struggling with their own malaise or malady. </p>
<p>Upon recognizing this, it is easier to be forgiving of those we disagree with. But more than that, perhaps, it makes it easier to be more forgiving of ourselves. It helps us recognize an important piece of suffering and of being human. </p>
<h2>Suffering and its solution</h2>
<p>This idea is echoed when <a href="http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html">Epictetus explains</a> the source of human suffering:</p>
<p>“What upsets people is not things themselves but their judgments about the things.” </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189214/original/file-20171006-973-1pcvxm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189214/original/file-20171006-973-1pcvxm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189214/original/file-20171006-973-1pcvxm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189214/original/file-20171006-973-1pcvxm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189214/original/file-20171006-973-1pcvxm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189214/original/file-20171006-973-1pcvxm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189214/original/file-20171006-973-1pcvxm1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Epictetus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Epictetus.jpg#file">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Being upset about something is not a function of the thing that seems upsetting; rather, it is the judgment about that thing that causes the distress. </p>
<p>Judgments, not external things or events, are the source of human suffering.</p>
<p>The remedy to all this, according to Epictetus, is really just a shift in attitude toward the things that happen. When we can face the day, with full acknowledgment of what that day might entail, and recognize that still we must go on, we can move forward. </p>
<p>That may mean letting go of the conception of how things ought to be, and accept them for what they are, even the most frustrating and depressing. </p>
<p>Then, “the work of a human being” might not seem so daunting.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75593/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert S. Colter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A philosopher explains how to learn from the stoicism of Roman philosophers to cope with present-day troubles.Robert S. Colter, Associate Lecturer, Philosophy, University of WyomingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/598902016-05-30T05:09:47Z2016-05-30T05:09:47ZSix ways the ancient philosophy of Stoicism can help business entrepreneurs<p>With the increasing swirl of interest around mindfulness, resilience and innovation we can’t forget that there are many who have trodden this path before us with important lessons we can borrow.</p>
<p>Stoicism is the branch of ancient western philosophy that focuses on mindfulness, resilience, creativity and more, all of which allows us to flourish and live the good life, achieving eudemonia (translated from Greek as happiness, or human flourishing).</p>
<p>The principles have had a profound influence on Western thought, and compared to other schools of philosophy often consumed by intellectual enterprise and endless debate it’s bracingly practical and straightforward.</p>
<p>Whilst stoicism hasn’t been popular for a while it’s making a comeback with a strong international following.</p>
<p>Whilst it’s seen by some as a western form of Buddhism, helping to overcome destructive emotions, it actually originated in the Greco-Roman Empire.</p>
<p>It had three principle leaders: Marcus Aurelius, who wrote daily about restraint, compassion and humility; Epictetus who overcame the horrors of slavery to go on to found his own School; and Seneca, who, facing a demand for his suicide from his emperor Nero, thought only of comforting his wife and friends.</p>
<p>And at its core are three simple lessons.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>How unpredictable the world is and how brief life is.</p>
<p>How to be steadfast, strong, and in control of yourself.</p>
<p>That dissatisfaction comes from impulsive reflexes rather than logic.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Amongst current leaders President Barack Obama is often seen to <a href="https://stoicismtoday.wordpress.com/2014/12/07/barack-obama/">demonstrate qualities of stoicism</a> through his calm and collected demeanour, which some say echoes the political style of well-known stoic, Cato the Younger.</p>
<p>Stoicism transforms negative emotions into a sense of perspective and prepares you to have the right state of mind. At its heart it’s about controlling things which are in your power to control and ditching the rest.</p>
<p>It requires being mindful, awareness and control, rather than being lost to emotion and random thought processes. Stoic exercises such as “practicing” misfortune and poverty help teach us that the worst case scenario is not in fact, the worst. And it’s great for business.</p>
<p>Stoic principles can build the resilience and state of mind required to rebound from knockbacks, so important in our new world of innovation and entrepreneurship.</p>
<p>Nassim Taleb <a href="http://www.rootsimple.com/2013/06/stoicism-as-a-toolkit-for-modern-life/">in his book The Black Swan says</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“My idea of the modern stoic sage is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into information, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Stoics practice turning obstacles into opportunity. If you want to build creativity into your business use the exercise “turning the obstacle upside down”, every “bad” becomes a new opportunity.</p>
<p>In the modern world stoicism seems a perfect fit for leadership lessons… It has at its core, character.</p>
<h2>1) Rationality, perspective and logic</h2>
<p>Before we try to control events, we have to control ourselves. Self-Control is the only thing that can succeed 100% of the time.</p>
<h2>2) Authenticity</h2>
<p>It’s important to have role models but emulation can turn into imitation, and all you produce is a second-rate product. Stoicism means embracing your quirks and leveraging your uniqueness.</p>
<h2>3) Self-mastery and purposeful action</h2>
<p>A stoic knows exactly what they want from their day and has clear goals. Writing daily goals creates a psychological pre-commitment and self-expectation that increases the likelihood of achievement.</p>
<p>It’s not all glass half full. Science is proving what the Stoics knew for centuries. Harvard psychologist Shawn Achor showed in research that professionals who took part in a gratitude practice at the start of their day performed at a much better level than those who didn’t, achieved through dopamine release which increases overall performance and happiness levels.</p>
<h2>4) Military leaders follow its principles</h2>
<p>In 1965, James Stockdale was shot down over Vietnam. While falling he whispered to myself: “At least, I’m leaving the world of technology and entering the world of Epictetus”. </p>
<p>He spent over seven years in a Vietnamese prison, and wrote that Stoicism saved his life. Nancy Sherman, who taught philosophy at the Naval Academy, argued that Stoicism is a driving force behind the military mind-set in its emphasis on endurance, self-control, and inner strength.</p>
<h2>5) Stoicism is ideal for the entrepreneur</h2>
<p>As an entrepreneur being able to practice misfortune makes you stronger in the face of adversity; flipping obstacles upside down turns problems into opportunities; and remembering how small you are keeps your ego manageable and in perspective.</p>
<h2>6) Stoicism lends itself to globalisation</h2>
<p>It was perhaps the first Western philosophy to preach universal brotherhood. Epictetus stated that each of us is a citizen of our own land, but “also a member of the great city of gods and men”. Marcus Aurelius <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/238146">reminded himself daily to love the world</a> as much as he loved his native city.</p>
<p>We can be glad that there is a renaissance around Stoicism as we all rush to meet the charge on creating a more innovative world and as we search for a better life. Stoicism gives us a system that we can draw upon and take relief from what <a href="http://www.samuelthomasdavies.com/stoicism/">practitioners have called</a> a “personal operating system for high-pressure environment”.</p>
<p>I hope many more discover the magic of this school of philosophy and understand how powerful and helpful it can be both in life and business, but in the interim we can’t end an article on stoicism without quoting one of the great stoics as a lesson.</p>
<p>As <a href="http://rationallyspeaking.blogspot.com.au/2007/03/problem-with-stoicism.html">Marcus Aurelius</a> remarked:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The things you think about determine the quality of your mind.”</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59890/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Petrina Coventry is a Non Executive Director with the Australasian Association of Philosophy (AAP) and the Australian Human Resource Industry (AHRI).</span></em></p>The ancient philosophy of stoicism can build the qualities needed in our new world of innovation and entrepreneurship.Petrina Coventry, Professor, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/499492015-11-06T02:58:47Z2015-11-06T02:58:47ZA timeless tonic for our modern malaise? Stoicism may be the way forward<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101000/original/image-20151105-16268-8dac9e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The core disciplines of the ancient and enduring tradition are focused on the cultivation of strength.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Mueller</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What would bring together a geologist from Utah, an 80-year-old carpenter from Serbia, a self-described workaholic with Asperger’s syndrome living in Costa Rica, a German biochemist and a first-year technology student from Ho Chi Minh City? They are all participants in <a href="http://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/stoicismtoday/what-we-do/">Stoic Week</a> (November 2-8), an internet forum currently being hosted by the University of Exeter in England. </p>
<p>Now in its fourth year, Stoic Week 2015 has drawn well over 3,000 registrations worldwide, and its growing numbers testify to the continuing relevance of this ancient classical tradition of philosophy. </p>
<p>“Stoic”, an ancient word that has remained in our everyday vocabulary, is associated with stern self-discipline in harsh circumstances. Yet the widespread appeal of Stoic Week – which bills itself as “an opportunity for you to see whether Stoic philosophy can help you lead a better life” – suggests that stoicism has something really effective to offer in the 21st century. Participation is voluntary, and free of charge. </p>
<p>Anyone can register by <a href="http://modernstoicism.com">completing the forms</a> on the site. This will enable them to download the handbook, and contribute to the forums, which explore how people can cultivate the stoic qualities of steadfastness, fortitude, emotional restraint and mental clarity.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101005/original/image-20151105-16258-jkg1y7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101005/original/image-20151105-16258-jkg1y7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101005/original/image-20151105-16258-jkg1y7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1069&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101005/original/image-20151105-16258-jkg1y7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1069&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101005/original/image-20151105-16258-jkg1y7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1069&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101005/original/image-20151105-16258-jkg1y7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1343&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101005/original/image-20151105-16258-jkg1y7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1343&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101005/original/image-20151105-16258-jkg1y7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1343&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Imaginary portrait of Epictetus. Engraved frontispiece of Edward Ivie’s Latin translation (or versification) of Epictetus’ Enchiridon, printed in Oxford in 1751.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Among those who have registered are many people who are dealing with forms of personal ordeal, and many more who are professionally concerned with critical situations, as therapists or medical professionals. </p>
<p>The academic team behind Stoic Week includes psychologists and social scientists who are interested in how stoic practices may work as a mode of resilience training in contemporary everyday life. Donald Robertson, the program convener, is a psychotherapist with research interests in the application of stoicism as a form of cognitive behaviour therapy. </p>
<p>A key strategy, taken from the writings of <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/epictetu/">Epictetus</a> (55–135 AD), is that of distinguishing between those things which are under your control and those which are not. “This takes training to do well,” as the handbook advises. </p>
<p>Indeed, a modern reader might spot that there is something missing from the Epictetus formula, and it is to be found in the so-called “<a href="http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/12steps/a/aa031297.htm">serenity prayer</a>” recited at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As cognitive behavioural training, this focus on “knowing the difference” can assist in gaining awareness of – and control over – one’s emotional reactions to situations.</p>
<p>Steven Spielberg’s recently released film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3682448/">Bridge of Spies</a> (2015) presents a portrait of the stoic in its two central characters of the spy (Mark Rylance) and the lawyer (Tom Hanks). </p>
<p>Three times in the film, the lawyer asks his client at a critical moment, “Aren’t you worried?” And the reply is, “Would it help?”. In stoic terms, it will not help to invest emotional response of any kind in a situation where the outcome is not up to us – as, in this case, at the moment where the spy, Rudolf Abel, is waiting to be released on a prisoner exchange deal that may fall through at the last minute. </p>
<p>If the situation is not in your control, the most effective thing to do is to focus your strength on maintaining your own psychological composure. That will contribute to mental clarity, which as the film shows, can be effective in actually turning the situation to your advantage.</p>
<p>A focus on how to live takes priority in stoicism over abstract arguments and interpretations. <a href="http://www.iep.utm.edu/stoicism/">The stoics</a> were nothing if not pragmatic, and leading stoics have never shied away from the compromises of realpolitik. </p>
<p>Seneca was deeply involved in government affairs in Rome during the first century AD, when regime change was a frequent and violent business. <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/marcus-aurelius-9192657">Marcus Aurelius</a>, author of a collection of <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marcus-aurelius/">Meditations on stoic principles</a>, was Emperor of Rome in the second century. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101003/original/image-20151105-16242-gspbq3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101003/original/image-20151105-16242-gspbq3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101003/original/image-20151105-16242-gspbq3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101003/original/image-20151105-16242-gspbq3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101003/original/image-20151105-16242-gspbq3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101003/original/image-20151105-16242-gspbq3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1180&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101003/original/image-20151105-16242-gspbq3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1180&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101003/original/image-20151105-16242-gspbq3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1180&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bust of Marcus Aurelius, Glyptothek (Munich).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Passages from the Meditations in the Stoic Week handbook acknowledge the insecurities of public office, the difficulties of dealing with treacherous people, and the challenges of brokering agreement amongst conflicting parties. Much of what Marcus Aurelius wrote would make sense to Angela Merkel, Barack Obama or Ban Ki-moon. </p>
<p>While in obvious ways modern leaders inhabit a world vastly different from that of second-century Rome, Marcus Aurelius would have insisted on the continuities. In his writings, he persisted in reminding himself that life on Earth is a cycle of natural processes, repeated through “the abyss of endless time” on a planet that is a mere point in space. </p>
<p>Change is a constant, though with the stoic’s macroscopic vision, it is the constancy you learn to see, along with the relative insignificance of whatever challenges and crises you may be facing in your own life. </p>
<p>Marcus Aurelius may have been Emperor of Rome, but he asserted that he was first and foremost a citizen of the world. As the scale of the refugee crisis threatens to destabilise European nations, that priority resonates with overwhelming urgency.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most striking achievement of Stoic Week is its extraordinary international reach. </p>
<p>There are participants from 73 countries across Europe, Central and South East Asia, Australasia, Africa, South America, China and Russia, and from 27 states in the US. The 120 Australians are from all around the country, in every state capital and in regional areas from Coolgardie to Rockhampton.
This convergence of interest is surely a striking endorsement of the stoic principle that we are all citizens of the world. </p>
<p>It may also be an indicator of a form of quiet revolution at work in our culture. Are we seeing a turn away from the cultivation of self-affirmation, in a culture where being a high achiever is the first principle of life management?</p>
<p>It should be acknowledged that self-assertion is a strategy that has often been promoted in the cause of equity and positive discrimination. Too often, people from oppressed groups are taught to be complicit in their own disadvantage by quietly accepting it. But that is fatalism rather than stoicism. </p>
<p>The core disciplines of the ancient and enduring tradition are focused on the cultivation of strength – mental, physical and emotional. Along with this goes a steadfast commitment to the promotion of general wellbeing, civic harmony, and the health of the social fabric. </p>
<p>If those things are what the stoic turn has to offer us, bring it on.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49949/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Goodall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Stoicism is an ancient concept – so why is it regaining popularity in the 21st century?Jane Goodall, Adjunct Professor, Writing and Society Research Centre , Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/345162015-01-02T13:46:49Z2015-01-02T13:46:49ZIf 2015 is already stressing you out, try stoic therapy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67774/original/image-20141219-31573-1qf261d.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">marcus aurelius</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Marcus Aurelius (121-180CE) was emperor of Rome at the height of its influence and power. One can only imagine the pressures that a person in his position might have experienced. The military might of the empire was massive, and much could happen in the fog of war. Conspiracies ran rampant through the imperial court. What might be lurking right around the corner seemed unforeseeable. Economies flourished and fell into ruin. Barbarians at the Gates! And if Marcus was stressed out, how much more might the ordinary Roman suffer from this uncertainty?</p>
<p>But, as we start 2015, is Marcus’s world really all that different from ours? </p>
<p>Today, global financial markets seem to move of their own accord as life savings vanish. Conflict around the world and violence at home seems hopelessly incomprehensible for most of us. US elections have seen some of their lowest voter turnout in recent memory, and the country seems more polarized than ever. The constant flow of information from the media and internet can make one feel small and ineffectual. </p>
<p>If all these stresses push one into a state of despair, or at least a sense of futility, maybe we can follow Marcus’ advice and turn to philosophy. In particular, the philosophy of Stoicism.</p>
<h2>The principles of Stoicism</h2>
<p>Stoicism was founded in Athens around 300 BCE, and had its zenith during the Roman Imperial period of the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, in the writings of such thinkers as Seneca and Epictetus, as well as Marcus Aurelius. </p>
<p>Stoicism promised that a good life is available to us even in the face of overwhelming circumstances, which might partly explain its attractiveness to even the mighty emperor of the most powerful empire of its time. </p>
<p>Central to this life, according to the Stoics, is a certain set of cognitive approaches to what goes on in the world around us. </p>
<p>First, we must recognize that the vast majority of circumstances and events are out of our control. What is in our control is how we react to them. Thus, what matters to having a good life is not what happens to us, but rather how we deal with it. </p>
<p>The second major point is that those things under our control -– our thoughts – are both the source of our suffering, and something that we can learn to control. When we learn to have the appropriate reactions and thoughts, we can then live a happy and fruitful life even in the face of enormous difficulties. </p>
<p>In the words of Epictetus: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you think that things naturally enslaved are free or that things not your own are your own, you will be thwarted, miserable, and upset, and will blame both gods and men. But if you think that only what is yours is yours, and that what is not your own is, just as it is, not your own, then no one will ever coerce you, no one will hinder you, you will blame no one, you will not accuse anyone, you will not do a single thing unwillingly, you will have no enemies, and no one will harm you, because you will not be harmed at all.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Stoicism applied to contemporary life</h2>
<p>A growing number of deeply thoughtful people, from scholars to practicing therapists, are following Marcus’ advice today. For example, a group at the University of Essex in the UK has developed <a href="http://modernstoicism.com/">“Stoic Week,”</a> and produced guidelines for anyone to participate in stoic practices for a week and share their experiences. </p>
<p>Having just concluded its third iteration, this experiment in stoic living has indicated that stoicism may in fact be a helpful tool in modern life. <a href="http://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/stoicismtoday/2014/02/22/stoic-week-2013-the-results/">Preliminary results</a> from the first stoic week suggest that the majority of participants had significant reductions in negative feelings associated with stress and anxiety, etc.</p>
<p>The practice of stoicism is also now being pursued in the US. The University of Wyoming hosts a Stoic Camp, first run in May of 2014, putting students and faculty together to live by stoic principles on a 24 hour basis. </p>
<h2>Stoic camp in Wyoming</h2>
<p>Based in the Snowy Range outside of Centennial, WY, the initial camp hosted only students from Wyoming, but further iterations will accept students from other universities. </p>
<p>On a typical day, campers rise early in order to practice meditation based in the ancient texts and use this practice to help structure the rest of the day. Each morning and afternoon, the camp breaks into groups to read and discuss portions of Marcus’s <em>Meditations</em> and consider how they reflected his stoic values and advice. By repeating this process, these ideas can become part of our cognitive equipment. Campers also engaged in outdoor activities to emphasize our affinity with nature and the universe as a whole. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67990/original/image-20141223-32194-1n8r106.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67990/original/image-20141223-32194-1n8r106.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67990/original/image-20141223-32194-1n8r106.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67990/original/image-20141223-32194-1n8r106.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67990/original/image-20141223-32194-1n8r106.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67990/original/image-20141223-32194-1n8r106.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67990/original/image-20141223-32194-1n8r106.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Engaging with philosophy in Wyoming.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robert S. Colter</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some of the campers were deeply affected by their experience. One camper told me, “Stoic camp was a continual reminder that so little is under our control, and also that there is no reason to stress over it. The repetition made this realization longer lasting, and gave us tools to use in living life in the face of stressful situations.”</p>
<p>So, these cognitive realizations and tools may help us to live a happy, fruitful life. As the Stoics emphasize, however, such a life cannot consist in making the world bend to our will. Rather it must consist in making ourselves more fit to live well in the world as it is. </p>
<p>As Marcus says, “Do not act as if you had ten thousand years to live … while you have life in you, while you still can, make yourself good.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34516/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert S. Colter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Marcus Aurelius (121-180CE) was emperor of Rome at the height of its influence and power. One can only imagine the pressures that a person in his position might have experienced. The military might of…Robert S. Colter, Academic Professional Lecturer, Philosophy, University of WyomingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.