Spirituality Information - Journey In The Fields Of Forever ( Part 22 )
Welcome back to this series of articles on spirituality. Spirituality is defined as our search for meaning and purpose in one's existence. This article will cover the ancient philosophy of Stoicism, while always keeping an eye on how they can apply it to modern life. After all, Stoicism is a 2,300-year-old philosophy and one that was hugely influential in the early formation of Christianity.
FABIUS-RUFUS
Before getting into Stoicism, we must get a sense of its history. There's no better person to learn about it than Dr. Andrew Fabius-Rufus. Andrew is currently a lecturer of philosophy at the University of Phoenix, Arizona in the United States. He has also taught as an adjunct professor at various colleges as well and has written many articles for various publications, including The Journal Of Popular Culture and The Philosophers' Magazine .
He has published several books on Stoic Ethics and is an editor for Stoicism Today , where he writes about contemporary uses of Stoicism in modern life and society. For the first time, he is setting forth his own personal understanding on Stoicism.
Andrew assumes that readers have some knowledge of Dr. Paul Mus's work on Stoicism. You can read more about Dr. Mus' interpretation of the philosophy in my previous article here: The Ancient Philosophy Of Stoicism (Part 1) .
Another thing to bear in mind is that many articles on ancient philosophies often utilize quotes from Hellenistic writers, or " Hellenistic Philosophers , as they are sometimes known. These writings were written by Greek and Roman philosophers from the 3rd century BC onward and most of their thinking was derived from earlier Greek and Asian philosophies.
There are two kinds of Stoicism you should know about. There is the ancient Stoicism and there is the modern Stoicism. Ancient Stoicism was originally founded by Zeno of Citium and later developed by Chrysippus of Soli . From there, the philosophy was adopted by other philosophers, such as Cleanthes , Panaetius , Antipater , and Posidonius .
Modern Stoicism was popularized during the 1960's in America thanks to William B. Irvine's A Guide To The Good Life: The Ancient Art Of Stoic Joy . From there, the philosophy was taken up by many intellectuals and became a popular subject for study in universities. Today, Modern Stoicism has become an international movement with its own conferences and organizations dedicated to spreading Stoic philosophy.
Modern Stoicism is one thing, but this article focuses on ancient Stoicism. I can't emphasize enough how much ancient Stoicism influenced Christianity through the early church fathers. The early church fathers attended stoa - Greek term meaning porch or courtyard where students met to discuss philosophy - where they learned about the principles of Stoicism.
If you want to learn more about modern stoicism and its relationship to Christianity, then I would recommend you read Dr. Mus' books listed in the bibliography. Other good sources of information are:
The Stoics and Stoicism by Dr. William Edw. Roberts, Jr. Ancient Philosophy by Thomas Taylor, Chapter 14: The Stoics by Dr. Elisha L. Hanna, and The Higher Life by Dr. George Cornewall Lewis , which contains a biography of Marcus Aurelius .
I should note that I have to disagree with Andrew's assertion that it was St. Paul who taught Christianity stoicism before Epictetus . Of course it was his teacher Seneca , but Paul studied under Athenodorus of Athens . Seneca's entire work is available online here: http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Seneca.html .
To learn more about Roman Stoicism, I recommend you check out L.H. Hackett's book Stoic Philosophy .
Stoicism was a very popular philosophy during the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, but it was greatly influenced by other philosophers such as Epicurus and Epicureanism . Epicurus was very popular during this time mainly because he believed that people should enjoy life to the fullest and take no thought for their future existence beyond the next moment of time. He believed that there is no God, therefore worrying about things like death is pointless, as is any other form of worry or anxiety over our future existence.
Epicureans also believed in "autarchy" (freedom from reliance on others) and that only pleasure can ultimately bring happiness. They believed that virtue was the only true good, though it is closely related to pleasure. Stoicism, on the other hand, believed in a different kind of autarchy, which is freedom from slavery to one's emotions or cravings for pleasure.
They also disagreed with Epicureanism in their view of fate's involvement in life, where Epicureans believed fate played no part in human affairs. Stoics were pantheists who believe that a divine force infuses all things (pantheism), which means that humans are controlled by some controlling power greater than themselves .
In fact, the stoa was where Stoic philosophers met to discuss philosophy. It was a place where they could safely discuss important matters concerning their philosophy in a non-judgmental atmosphere. It was also a place where they could network and share ideas with other like-minded individuals.
ANALYTIC METHODS
Before getting into the details of Stoicism's philosophy, it's important to understand what St. Paul meant when he said he devoted his life to Christ (1 Corinthians 9:19). There are four basic methods of logic that we all use for analyzing philosophical arguments.
The first is called the reductio ad absurdum (Latin for "Reduction to the absurd"). The reductio ad absurdum method is a logical argument that attempts to disprove an idea by showing that the idea leads to an absurd conclusion (normally from some assumptions is made).
The second method is the syllogism. It is a proof by appeal to reason which starts with some true premises or premisses. It then makes use of them in a series of valid deductions and reaches its conclusion.
The third method called the enthymeme or "inference to the best explanation". An enthymeme is an argument that begins with some tentative premise, which requires certain facts to be true and proceeds logically to reach conclusions supporting those premisses.
Finally, there is the dialectic (from the Greek word meaning "to take turn in conversation"). It is a method of argument that uses three forms of reasoning: 1) inductive - to make generalizations by drawing conclusions from specific observations. Failures in inductive reasoning are called fallacies 2) deductive - to give certain facts and then deduce certain facts or truths. It can also be referred to as a syllogism 3) dialectic - "turning" or "tugging" or "pushing against." Also used to refer to two opposing arguments, which are debated and then both sides are evaluated.
If you want more information on these methods, I recommend you read this lecture by St.
Conclusion
This blog post has some very important points to consider when examining ancient stoicism. For example, it is a common misconception that Stoics believed "dull apathy." It's not true. If you wish to learn more about this point, I recommend you read Brief History of Stoicism by Massimo Pigliucci in which he writes:
"For a lot of modern readers (and perhaps also for some ancient ones), the idea of considering everything one does as an exercise in 'philosophy,' or even turning everything into a religious act, strikes them as either completely counterintuitive or even downright absurd.