The optimist says the glass is half full, the pessimist says it is half empty, and the stoic says: “How great that glasses exist at all.”
Stoicism is an ancient school of philosophy with no religious component. Etymologically, the “stoa” was an open colonnaded gallery. It is assumed that the first Stoics gathered near one of these galleries in the second century BCE, which is where the name of the philosophical movement came from.
The idea of Stoicism is to move forward with social optimism, play your social role, grow professionally and personally, and at the same time keep an impartial attitude toward life’s difficulties.
The main problem with Stoicism today is that the worldview of the ancient Stoics is extremely archaic due to the absence of modern knowledge about the surrounding world and science. Most people who study Stoicism approach it historically, without separating it from the ancient environment in which it developed. Imagine if not a single Buddhist were left in the world and we had to study Buddhism only through books written two thousand years ago. As a living philosophical tradition, Stoicism today is more dead than alive. But historians are not to blame: their work is not adaptation, but study. Adaptation should be done by practitioners.
The Stoics claimed that the human person is autonomous. One does not need a connection to some collective whole in order to be happy or to grow. Reason does not need a god or a mentor to understand how a person should live. From the standpoint of the individual, the foundation of Stoicism is self-analysis.
Some Stoic definitions may sound too mythological to us:
- The universe is fire, but not chaotic fire, rather rational fire.
- From time to time a world fire comes and destroys the universe, after which everything is born again.
- Everything that happens has an explanation, has already happened infinitely many times in the past, and will happen again in the future.
- Our actions are inevitable.
Stoics were neither ascetics nor hermits. On the contrary, they thought complete rejection of wealth and the benefits of civilization was a kind of philosophical posturing.
Marcus Aurelius said: “Sometimes I want to abandon everything and go live in the countryside, but I am an emperor. My duty is to care for the empire, and if I fail in that duty, I will be disqualified as a wise man, as a philosopher, and as a human being. I will have no chance at a happy and carefree life in the country.”
The obstacle on the path is the path itself
For the Stoics, following one’s own nature, one’s own path, was of fundamental importance. In my view, the Stoic path resembles the idea of the “dao” in Eastern philosophies.
On time
Everything that has happened to us is already outside our control, so all we can do with the past is reflect on it. Toward the past, one should be a complete fatalist.
The present should also be approached with a large degree of fatalism, because we cannot change the present. It is what we have, what our past has led us to.
Only the future should not be treated fatalistically, because it is easy to distinguish a bad future from a good one. A good future is one in which I follow my path, and that is what should be pursued.
How should we relate to other people?
Everyone around us is, to some degree, an asshole, just like we are. So people should be treated with patience and understanding.
“When you go out into the city, remember that you are a bad person going toward bad people.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
“You are human only when you are among other people.”
Marcus Aurelius
“The best way to take revenge on another person is not to become like them.”
Marcus Aurelius
Stoic psychological techniques
Negative visualization
This practice means reflecting on the fact that, in any life situation, things could be much worse. It helps us realize that what we already have is enough, or even more than enough, for happiness.
Dasha is traveling on vacation by train. The carriage is hot and smells bad, her phone is out of battery and there is nowhere to charge it, and she has to watch screaming babies drown out half-drunk workers. An unpleasant situation in which it is hard to find any reason for joy.
What would a stoic think in this situation?
“Things could be much worse. I might not be going on vacation at all. Good thing I didn’t lose my phone when I rushed for the train. Good thing…”
The obstacle on the path becomes the path itself… Every obstacle is an opportunity to correct something in your life.
Zen Buddhist parable
What is the worst that can happen?
Dichotomy of control
This practice consists in dividing everything in the world into two categories: what we can control, and what lies outside our control. We should worry and act only with regard to what we can control. There is no point in stressing over a meteor flying toward Earth.
In real life there are many things that cannot be clearly assigned to either category. For such cases, the following practice works.
Roma is trying to win a sports tournament. He may train for months, perform brilliantly, and still become a victim of unfair refereeing. In that case, disappointment will almost certainly follow.
Internalization of goals
This practice is about setting the right goals, separating what matters from what does not.
If Roma sets himself the goal of performing well in the competition rather than winning it, the goal moves entirely under his control. If he loses, there will be no disappointment, because he performed with dignity and did everything that depended on him. The goal is fulfilled.
The practice of self-restraint
This means periodically giving up certain benefits for a short period of time. The idea is to train for hardship: a person who knows how to live under artificially limited conditions will not be terribly upset when they end up in such conditions against their will.
For example, Lucius Annaeus Seneca, despite being wealthy, could set himself the goal of eating only black bread and drinking only water one day a week.
Based on the lecture “On Stoicism” by Kirill Konstantinovich Martynov, associate professor at HSE.