Stoicism and the Art of Happiness: Practical wisdom for everyday life by Donald Robertson

Author:Donald Robertson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Practical wisdom for everyday life
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton. An Hachette UK company.
Published: 2018-07-11T16:00:00+00:00

The seeds of wisdom in everyone

For Stoics, strictly-speaking, everyone except the Sage is equally foolish and devoid of virtue. However, some people have made more progress towards true wisdom and virtue than others. The later Stoics, in particular, frequently talk more loosely about the ‘virtues’ of ordinary people. They clearly thought we can learn by contemplating these traces or glimpses of ‘virtues’ in others, even if they are not perfect Sages. Indeed, contemplating the virtues of those around us, our friends, family and colleagues – perhaps even our ‘enemies’ or those who create difficulty in our lives – may have the additional benefit of improving our relationships with them. Hence, Seneca says ‘we should equip our lives with distinguished models, and not always resort to the old ones’, such as Socrates presumably (Letters, 83).

For after all, those are the people we are obliged to take our models from; perfect wisdom, of course, they have not attained, though we are entitled to select those who approach that ideal most closely. (Cicero, Laelius: On Friendship, 11)

Marcus Aurelius reminds himself to continually have before his mind’s eye the virtues of his friends and associates, such as their modesty and generosity, because nothing brings such a healthy sense of rational joy as this simple contemplation. He carries out this psychological exercise throughout the whole first chapter of the Meditations by reviewing the virtues of the most significant individuals in his life, often condensed into a few words. The longest, and penultimate, section concerns his adoptive father, the Emperor Antoninus Pius.

From my father [I might learn] gentleness, and an unwavering adherence to decisions reached deliberately; and indifference to so-called honours; and a love of work and thoroughness; and readiness to hear suggestions for the common good; and a dogged determination to give every man his due. (Meditations, 1.16)

He continues for several pages, finally concluding with the words:

One might say of him what we’re told [by Xenophon] of Socrates, that he could abstain from or enjoy those things that many people are not strong enough to refrain from and too much inclined to enjoy. But to have the strength to persist in the one case and to abstain in the other is typical of a man with a perfect and indomitable mind.

From his own Stoic teacher, Sextus of Chaeronea, Marcus says he learned ‘the conception of a life in accordance with Nature’ but also ‘dignity without affectation, an intuitive consideration of friends, and tolerance of the unlearned and unreasoning’. Even if some among his friends, family and teachers were not very wise he could nevertheless identify their strengths and learn to imitate them. The first step to doing so, however, is putting them into words. By naming and describing the ‘virtues’ of others, Marcus helps himself to memorize and rehearse them throughout the rest of the exercises in the Meditations.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.