How To Be A Stoic

How To Be A Stoic is a practical guide to ancient philosophy in modern life, covering the principles Socrates, Epictetus, and Cato followed in the three disciplines of desire, action, and assent.

Despite being influential and sometimes wealthy figures, many famous Stoics died premature deaths. Or sometimes, because of it. Seneca, Socrates, and Cato were all sentenced, imprisoned, ordered to, or somehow otherwise condemned to commit suicide. Cato refused to be captured by Caesar, Seneca was conspired against by Nero, and Socrates was unjustly executed. Unlike the others, however, he had a chance to escape. But he didn’t, in order to stand by his morals.

This kind of inflexibility is a rather uncommon example among Stoics. Usually, the philosophy likes to see its teachings adjusted in practical, livable ways. One such way is to look at everything that’s desirable as so-called preferred indifferents. That could be wealth, health, family, friends, or whatever else makes you particularly happy.

A preferred indifferent is an option you would prefer, given the choice, but are indifferent to, should you be unable to attain it. For example, if the Stoics had a chance to work with their emperor and become rich in the process, they would take it. But they would never take desperate measures to become rich on their own.

Everything in life has a moral component. There’s always a right choice. Often, it will also lead to happiness. But if it doesn’t, choose it just the same.

One thing that can make it a lot easier to make the morally correct choice time and time again in your life is the Stoic concept of virtue. If you align all your decisions with it, you will do just fine by not just Stoic, but pretty much all religious or spiritual standards across the world. Pigliucci analyzed how the Stoics defined virtue and found it to break down in four parts: Temperance. This is the ability to control your gut instincts and impulses and reign them in if you need to. Courage. The mental strength you need to see your decisions through when the going gets tough. Justice. Do you treat others the way you’d want to be treated? Wisdom. This is the knowledge and foresight you need to deal with all of life’s situations. Out of all these, the Stoics considered wisdom the most important, because it is good and helpful, regardless of the event. Wisdom will help you make the best choice, even when the odds aren’t stacking up in your favor, which they occasionally don’t for all of us. A simple question you can ask any time, to figure out what’s the most virtuous option, is this: “What would the person do…