Stoicism distilled

The ideas developed by the Stoics remain as meaningful, durable, and relevant today as they were two thousand years ago. They make up a practical and pragmatic system of thinking that has helped me to find peace and contentment in the face of our commercialized culture, attention economy, and accelerating pace of life.

Stoicism is also relatively light on the mysticism and religious undertones that may drive people away from the similar philosophies of Taoism and Buddhism.

This page contains a personal, condensed take on what I find to be the essentials of Stoicism. Think of it as a Stoic “cheat sheet”.

The big picture

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. –Shakespeare, Hamlet

Generally, Stoics observe that we care too much about things we cannot control (externals) and too little about those we can control (internals). Specifically, we react internally to externals in nonsensical ways that provoke unwarranted distress. The goal is then to reverse this paradigm, by removing our lenses of judgment and living by reason.

Externals

Judgment

Problem: We view externals–random outcomes, social opinion, the behaviour of others–through a veneer of judgment, and react to our thoughts about them instead of the things themselves.

Solution: Recognize these judgments when they occur and identify the subtle irrationalities embedded in them. Perceive externals as they are, with detachment and equanimity, and stake your well-being and self-worth on your own actions.

Perspective

Problem: We experience the world from an instrinsically biased perspective (within ourselves) that traps us within many deceptions and, to use a stronger word, delusions. Things that seem important in the heat of the moment turn out to be trifles in the long run or in the bigger picture.

Solution: Adopting different points of view encourages humility and erodes neurotic modes of thinking. A common Stoic technique is to view events at increasingly larger scales, culminating in the size and age of the universe itself.

Don’t take things personally, and learn to let go.

Internals

Desires

Problem: We overvalue what we don’t have and undervalue what we do have, and judge success by arbitrary measures like wealth and reputation. These measures tend to be fragile and involve a substantial component of luck.

Solution: Practice introspection (“know thyself”) and moderation (“nothing in excess”) while favouring simple or natural pleasures that are harder to take away. We can prefer to have wealth and pleasure than not, but should be wary of enslaving ourselves to the objects of them–and consequently, to those who control those objects.

Fears

Problem: We are preoccupied with the future and indifferent to the present.

Solution: Recognize when events are beyond our control, and that worrying about a bad outcome may feel worse than simply enduring it. Focus instead on acting well in the present.

Generally…

Our desires and fears stem from patterns of thought based on illusory judgments. We are unknowingly talked into these beliefs and feelings by our culture, or worse, by ourselves.

Instead, we should talk ourselves into healthier patterns of thinking based on reality, and avoid arbitrary and neurotic comparisons that don’t do any good. Our reactions are ours alone, and we should take responsibility for how we experience the world.

Living

Adversity

Problem: We cannot avoid undesirable outcomes, but lament them anyway without looking to gain from them.

Solution: Adopt a mindset insulated against hardship–physical pain does not have to cause mental pain. Use adversity as material for building wisdom and character.

Growth

Problem: Our judgments, and the fears and desires that result from them, are deeply ingrained and continually reinforced by our surroundings. This makes them hard to change.

Solution: Live by reason and virtue (eudaimonia). “Perfect” stoicism is an unattainable ideal, but we are better off just from trying.

Sources & further reading

Marcus Aurelius wrote about virtually everything described above in his personal notebook Meditations. The writings of his Seneca and Epictetus are also worth checking out.