How To Live Like A Stoic – Tom Hodgkinson

For us mere mortals, progress is enough. We can gradually move towards a state of happiness, of living a virtuous life, according to nature. To go with the flow. We’ll never get there, but we can try. This idea of a journey is also embedded in the very word ‘philosophy’. It means ‘love of wisdom’. And as Socrates says, to ‘love’ something does not mean that we possess it.

It means that we think it is lovely and would like to move towards it. The philosopher is radically humble. Socrates said he knew nothing. He contrasted the philosophers, who knew that they knew nothing, with the ‘sophists’ of Athens. These were the men who went around Greece teaching ambitious youth the ways of the world and getting paid for it handsomely.

Think Jordan Peterson in our day. We could translate ‘sophist’ as ‘know-it-all’. The Sophists were pleased with themselves. That is not a Stoic virtue and is highly dangerous. So we can try to be godlike, just as I try to be Roger Federer-like when I play tennis. Of course I’m never going to get there. But I can enjoy trying. And I don’t do this alone. No man is an island, and the Stoics, while they counselled radical self-sufficiency and self-reliance, and a sort of rock-like fortitude, were also social creatures, to whom friendship was at least quite important.

OceanofPDF.com Friendship It is a good thing to have many friends. Does the Stoic have mates? The Stoic message to be completely self-reliant or ataraxic and depend on nothing or no-one outside yourself for your happiness or eudaimonia might lead you to conclude that, for the Stoic school, friends are unimportant. Is the Stoic like the rock in Paul Simon’s song, an island, who has no need for friendship, only books and poetry? Well, up to a point, Lord Copper. One of the great philosophical friendships was that of Montaigne, who was a sort of semi-Stoic, and his friend Etienne de la Boétie.

Lots of names from olden times are mentioned in this book. It can get quite confusing. Therefore here is a simple ready reckoner to flip back to if you want to remind yourself of who’s who. The names are in roughly chronological order. We finish with St Augustine. Medea: character from Greek myth. She was driven mad by love for Jason. Sappho: Greek poet and singer who lived on the island of Lesbos and appears to have run a school. Pythagoras: Pre-Socratic Greek mathematician and philosopher.

Democritus: Greek philosopher who came up with the idea of atoms and influenced Epicurus. Socrates: Athenian philosopher and the major influence on the Stoics. Xanthippe: wife of Socrates. Famed for attacking her philosophical husband in the marketplace and pouring a pisspot over his head. Pericles: Athenian general and de facto ruler of Athens. Aspasia: consort to Pericles; adviser and friend to Socrates.

Alcibiades: beautiful young Athenian general; mad, bad and dangerous to know. Diogenes of Sinope: Cynic philosopher who famously lived in an upturned wine cask, dressed in rags and threw away his possessions. Crates: Athenian Cynic philosopher, teacher to Zeno. Hipparchia: Cynic philosopher; wife of Crates. Zeno: founder of the Stoic school. Cleanthes: second head of Stoic school. Epicurus: founder of the Epicurean school.

Plato: student of Socrates, founder of the Academy and author of the dialogues. Aristotle: student of Plato. Founder of the Lyceum. Studied the natural world. Chrysippus: early head of the Stoic school. Zenodotus: early Greek Stoic philosopher. Diogenes of Babylon: early head of the Stoic school. Cato the Elder: Roman politician and writer. Author of De Agri Cultura, a farming textbook. Famed for his austere ways. Cato the Younger: Roman politician, great grandson of Cato the Elder.

Student of the Stoics. Also austere. Wore simple clothes. Cicero: Roman lawyer and Stoic. Prolific author. Clodius: enemy of Cicero. Musonius Rufus: Stoic teacher. Seneca: wealthy Roman businessman and author of many classic Stoic texts. Also wrote plays. Nero: Roman emperor and Seneca’s boss. Octavia: first wife of Nero.

Marcia: friend of Seneca. When she lost her daughter, Seneca wrote her a consoling letter. Ovid: Roman poet. Lucilius: Seneca’s young friend, and the addressee of his Letters. Epictetus: freed slave who became an important Stoic teacher. Marcus Aurelius: Roman emperor who wrote a Stoic classic.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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