Stoicism Reborn Part 3: The Stoic Ruse
Tomorrow’s events:
Bioenergetic Workout w/ Devaraj Sandberg. Every Second Saturday @ 10:00 AM ET. RSVP here.
Consciousness and Spirituality Explained: Part 2 w/ Frank Heile. January 16th @ 4:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
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January 15th, 2021
Brad Inwood, a scholar of Stoicism, divides Stoicism into Large Stoicism and Minimal Stoicism. The former embraces the physics, logic, and the ethics of the original Greek Stoics, such as Chrysippus of Soli. The latter argues that all is needed is ethics, which was originally argued by Aristo of Chios. The Modern Stoic movement gravitates to Minimal Stoicism, relying heavily on the writings of the three famous Roman Stoics: Seneca the Younger, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius.
The Modern Stoics make this move because the original physics and logic of the Greek Stoics are not informed by modern understandings, while Stoic ethics are still relevant today, and corroborated by research from the likes of positive psychology. That being said, Stoicism is not a living tradition, like Christianity or Buddhism is. Stoicism faded away, and got co-opted by Christianity. An opportunity.
I organized a Stoic conference back in September 2019. Donald Robertson and Massimo Pigliucci, two Modern Stoic heavyweights, were there. Steve Beattie was also there, who regularly does the Stoic Breath at The Stoa, as well as John Vervaeke, who did an epic talk on the Stoic practice called the “View From Above.”
The theme of the conference was practice. While we know what the Stoics' ethical system was, nobody knows how the Stoics really practiced. The Modern Stoics, who are comprised mostly of atheists, did cobble together a series of practices from the existing texts from the Stoics—which you can learn about during Stoic Week—but we have no conclusive understanding of what the original Stoics' ecology of practices were. Another opportunity.
That was partly the inspiration behind the conference, to have a discussion on practice, and embody my favorite saying from Epictetus: Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it. I do not write about this much, but The Stoa was partly created in the same spirit of that conference: to rediscover Stoicism, to make it embodied, so it can be reborn.
Somebody emailed me, who used to go to the in-person Stoic meetings in Toronto, and who recently started to attend the online sessions at The Stoa. He wrote: Yesterday's presentation was fascinating though its connection to Stoicism was not clear to me.
On the surface, for most people who visit The Stoa, it is not about Stoicism. We’ve probably had over 700 events by now, and 99% of them have not been about Stoicism proper. But for me, it is very much about Stoicism. I agree with Seneca about exploring other schools and practices. From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
Seneca sees himself as a philosopher like the older Stoics. He feels free, however, to disagree with earlier Stoics, and is not concerned with keeping Stoicism ‘pure’ from non-Stoic ideas. Seneca integrates ideas from other philosophies if these seem helpful to him.
The Stoa then, could be partly seen as a philosophical R&D lab, in service towards Stoicism being reborn. I want to explore all the “paths” or “phenomenological self-inquiries” to use Evan McMullen’s terms, and allow all of these to intersect and interact, and see what wants to emerge.
My favorite criticism of Modern Stoicism comes from Venkatesh Rao, who tweeted the following back in August:
In some ways it seems like a category error to call stoicism an ideology or ethic at all under modern conditions. It’s closer to a consumption aesthetic, like minimalism. A performed aesthetic of bearing, composure etc. I honestly find it hard to take seriously. Reads larp to me.
He is right of course, it is a larp, but as the Nordic Larp scene taught us, we can “bleed” in the right way, at the knife’s edge, and larp it until we become it. Andrew Sweeney’s questions return to me once more: Is stoicism a ruse? What does a stoic worship? Is stoicism the religion that is not a religion?
The thing is, I never saw Stoicism as just a path, in the McMullenian sense. I see Stoicism as an opportunity. Like a magic trick, the best ruses are done right in front of everyone’s eyes.
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