Jess W

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What is the meaning of life for a Stoic?

Anyone who is familiar enough with Stoicism has probably heard of the Stoic motto live in agreement with nature. In fact, the Stoics believed that virtue consisted of a life in harmony with nature. So to live in agreement with nature meant that one will live a virtuous life. So what is the Stoic ideaContinue reading “What is the meaning of life for a Stoic?”

Did Friedrich Nietzsche Reject Stoicism?

I don’t believe that it’s easy to say that Nietzsche wasn’t a Stoic. Nietzsche did actually believe in the principle amor fati, something which Epictetus and other Stoics clearly did believe in. The confusion about Nietzsche outright rejecting Stoicism is this popularly referenced quote by him concerning the Stoics, You desire to LIVE “according toContinue reading “Did Friedrich Nietzsche Reject Stoicism?”

Do Stoics Care about Results?

I have noticed that there is this occasional confusion about whether Stoics care about results since they believe that virtue is the only good. Well, Stoics do care about consequences because if you’re intending to do good, you need to know what the results of those intentions are. There’s an old saying that the roadContinue reading “Do Stoics Care about Results?”

Is Stoicism a Religion?

Is Stoicism a religion? It really depends on what you mean by religion. But if you ask a person who takes Stoicism seriously as a philosophy, they’ll probably get indignant and be like, “Stoicism is not a religion! It’s a philosophy!” And they’ll be ironically quite religiously zealous about that fact. Religion to many in theContinue reading “Is Stoicism a Religion?”

Formal and Informal Fallacies

Wikipedia summarizes the distinction between formal and informal fallacies, A formal fallacy can be expressed neatly in a standard system of logic, such as propositional logic, while an informal fallacy originates in an error in reasoning other than an improper logical form. Arguments containing informal fallacies may be formally valid, but still fallacious. Wikipedia contributors.Continue reading “Formal and Informal Fallacies”

Why Stoic Physics Makes Sense

I was thinking about how I simply don’t believe that the Stoic physics is all that essential to Stoic ethics. Some people think that there needs to be a rational law throughout the universe for Stoic ethics to work. It’s not enough that we’re trying to be rational and trying to live in accord withContinue reading “Why Stoic Physics Makes Sense”

Stoicism and Amor Fati

I was taking a look at Massimo Pigliucci’s article Did the Ancient Stoics Believe in a Living Cosmos? Does It Matter? published in Medium and I thought his Stoicism 2.0 wasn’t a radical departure from Stoicism. I’m not sure I would sell it as Stoicism 2.0 since it appears to retain basically everything except forContinue reading “Stoicism and Amor Fati”

Spinoza and the Stoics

In the Ethics Spinoza attempts to give his philosophical metaphysics an absolute foundation in the style of Euclidean proofs. One of the principal focuses of the Ethics is to show that God is Nature and Nature is God. Like Descartes and Leibniz, Spinoza was a rationalist which meant he believed that all knowledge could beContinue reading “Spinoza and the Stoics”

The Ancient Stoic View of Suicide

When I first explored Stoicism, I was surprised to learn that they were fine with suicide. In fact, that was one of the few things I learned about them at first. I found out that Zeno of Citium (founder of Stoic philosophy in ancient Athens) broke his toe when he was in his 70s andContinue reading “The Ancient Stoic View of Suicide”