What’s the Best Version of The Meditations to Read First?
What’s the Best Version of The Meditations to Read First?
If thou would’st master care and pain, Unfold this book and read and read again Its blessed leaves, whereby thou soon shalt see The past, the present, and the days to be With opened eyes; and all delight, all grief, Shall be like smoke, as empty and as brief.
This epigram is found at the end of a Vatican manuscript of The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. It captures the perennial appeal of the book, which is that it offers a way to “master care and pain” by providing philosophical insights that promise to elevate our minds above worldly concerns, both the things we crave and those we fear.
One of the questions people ask me most often is: “Which edition of The Meditations would it be best for me to read first?” There are many translations of Marcus Aurelius available. Here are three that I would recommend to most readers.
Gregory Hays
ISBN: 9780812968255. Meditations: A New Translation (2003) by Gregory Hays is published by Modern Library, a division of Random House. It’s available in paperback and ebook formats. (Goodreads)
This is the most popular modern translation of The Meditations. It’s concise but very engaging and accessible, written in a style well-suited to lay readers.
Robin Hard
ISBN: 0199573204. Meditations: With Selected Correspondence(2011) is by Robin Hard, with an introduction and commentary by Christopher Gill, professor emeritus of ancient thought at the University of Exeter, and is published by Oxford University Press. It’s available in paperback and ebook formats. (Goodreads)
This is arguably a more literal and authoritative translation, with useful notes, more suited perhaps to readers who wish to make a closer study of the text. It also contains valuable excerpts from the correspondence between Marcus and his rhetoric tutor Marcus Cornelius Fronto.
George Long
ISBN: 0857088467.Meditations: The Philosophy Classic(2019) is my own modernized version of the classic George Long translation, published by Capstone Classics, an imprint of John Wiley & Sons. It’s available as a deluxe hardback edition. This is the only hardback of the three. However, I believe that, like other books in this series, it will eventually be available also in paperback, audiobook, and ebook versions. (Goodreads)
I was commissioned to update the much-loved translation first published by English classical scholar George Long in 1862, and turn it into plain English based on a close reading of the original Greek and comparison with more recent translations. It also includes my introductory essay on the life of Marcus Aurelius and the basic principles of his Stoic philosophy.
About Audiobooks
Several people have asked me about audiobook versions of The Meditations. It’s tricky because there as far as I’m aware there are no audiobook versions available of the Hard or Hays translations, although there may eventually by one for my version of the Long translation. There are versions of The Meditations for sale on Audible which don’t specify the translator. I’m guessing they’re all based on old public domain translations, probably Long’s in most cases. There are also paraphrases of The Meditations, such as this recent one recorded by Shane Stott called Meditations Made Simple.
How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius (2019) is published by St. Martin’s Press in hardback, ebook, and audiobook formats. This is a brief summary of the contents. At the end you’ll find a special bonus video, featuring an interview about Marcus Aurelius filmed at Carnuntum.
Introduction
The introduction explains how I came to write the book, drawing on my background in academic philosophy and training as a cognitive-behavioural psychotherapist, after nearly twenty years of writing and teaching Stoicism. It discusses the modern growth of interest in Stoicism, including the activities of the Modern Stoicism organization. It also explains how the idea for the book came from my experience of telling my young daughter, Poppy, stories about ancient philosophy.
1. The Dead Emperor
The first chapter opens with the death of Marcus Aurelius. I wanted to start the book with something dramatic. Each chapter begins with a story about some major event in Marcus’ life, based on the information we have from the various Roman histories of his reign.
In most of the chapters that leads into a discussion of Stoic philosophy and psychology and the concepts and techniques he used to cope with various problems such as anger, anxiety, pain, and so on. Then there’s a detailed discussion of how Stoic techniques can actually be applied today, drawing on my experience as a cognitive-behavioural therapist and the relevant scientific research. However, the first chapter is slightly different because after describing the events surrounding Marcus’ death in some detail, it proceeds to give the reader a short introduction to Stoic philosophy.
The story of Stoicism begins with Zeno of Citium, the founder of the school, and so you’ll be introduced to various anecdotes about him and other famous Stoics. Then we focus on what the Stoics actually believed: the core doctrines of the philosophy followed by Marcus throughout his entire adult life. And we’ll address some common misconceptions about Stoicism, such as the idea that Stoics were unemotional or joyless, which is false. I tried to keep the explanation of Stoicism in this chapter as simple as possible but after reading it you should have a pretty clear idea of who the Stoics were and what they believed. Then you’ll be well prepared to begin delving into the application of Stoicism to different areas of life. For example, in the next chapter we’ll be looking at how Stoics used language and in subsequent chapters you’ll learn how they overcame unhealthy desires and bad habits, conquered anxiety, managed anger, coped with pain and illness, came to terms with loss, and even faced their own mortality.
2. The Most Truthful Child in Rome
This chapter tells the story of Marcus’ youth and his studies in rhetoric and philosophy. He gradually shifted his attention away from the typical education offered by Sophists, and expected of a Roman noble. Instead he began pursuing the more demanding training offered by Stoic philosophers. We focus on Marcus’ Stoic teacher Apollonius of Chalcedon and explain some of the basic principles of Stoic psychology in this chapter.
There’s a common misconception that Stoics are unemotional so we correct that by explaining that the Stoics believed we should accept certain involuntary emotional reactions as natural and inevitable, rather than trying to suppress them. And they also actively encouraged certain healthy or positive emotions, which conformed to reason. The Stoic concept of emotion is illustrated with a remarkable anecdote about a Stoic teacher who was caught in a dangerous storm while sailing from Greece to Italy.
We look in detail at how the Stoics trained themselves to use language objectively avoiding strong value judgements and emotive rhetoric that might cause unnecessary distress. One of the basic psychological principles of Stoicism is that it’s not events that upset us but our judgements about them. So we explore specific ways in which we can learn to suspend distressing value judgements and view things more calmly and rationally, in a detached manner. We’ll look at how these psychological strategies were practised by the ancient Stoics and compare them to concepts and techniques used in modern cognitive psychotherapy.
3. Contemplating the Sage
This chapter focuses on Marcus’ relationship with his close friend and Stoic mentor, Junius Rusticus. Marcus says that Rusticus made him aware that he could benefit from Stoic psychological therapy or therapeia. The ancient Stoics actually wrote books on psychological therapy. Although they’re now lost, we do have a book by Galen, Marcus’ famous court physician, called On the Diagnosis and Cure of the Soul’s Passions, which draws inspiration from the Therapeutics of Chrysippus, the third head of the Stoic school.
Galen describes a process of moral correction and psychological therapy which may have resembled the sort of Stoic philosophical therapy that Marcus experienced as a youth, under the guidance of Junius Rusticus. This chapter tries to reconstruct that therapeutic approach by comparing Galen’s account with some remarks made by Marcus in The Meditations. It focuses on the way in which Stoics identified role models, such as Junius Rusticus, and how they learned to emulate their behaviour and assimilate the character traits they most admired in their heroes.
We also relate this to the advice found in The Golden Verses of Pythagoras, mentioned by Galen but also by Seneca and Epictetus. There we’re told to review our actions three times at the end of each day and ask ourselves three questions: What we did badly, What we did well, and what we omitted that could be done better in the future.
4. The Choice of Hercules
This chapter tells the story of Marcus’ adoptive brother and co-emperor, Lucius Verus. The two boys grew up together in the household of the Emperor Antoninus Pius and they both studied Stoic philosophy but over time their characters developed in quite different ways. Lucius abandoned philosophy and became known as a drunk and a poor leader. Marcus strove for excellence and continued to develop his character throughout his life by training himself rigorously in Stoic philosophy as a way of life.
We compare their paths in life to a famous allegory called The Choice of Hercules originating with the Sophist Prodicus, which was retold by Socrates, and inspired Zeno the founder of Stoicism to become a philosopher. This simple allegory was contained in a powerful speech designed to inspire young men to embrace virtue, and study philosophy, rather than giving in to easy living and vice. We also relate this to one of Aesop’s fables, which Marcus alludes to in The Meditations, about the town mouse and the country mouse. (Lucius reminds me of the town mouse and Marcus of the country mouse.)
The rest of the chapter is about how to develop awareness of our desires, evaluate them, and change bad habits where necessary, by combining ancient Stoic therapeutic strategies with concepts and techniques from modern cognitive-behavioural therapy. We do that in part by training ourselves to become more aware of the earliest signs of a desire or habit and also by carefully picturing the consequences to ourselves. That allows us to contrast the outcome if we indulge in the habit with the outcome if we exercise self-discipline and reason.
I also talk about the positive role of emotion in Stoicism and three different areas of life in which Marcus says Stoics can experience healthy feelings of joy and happiness.
5. Grasping the Nettle
This chapter begins with the story of Marcus’ chronic health problems. In the nineteenth century a cache of letters between Marcus and his rhetoric teacher Fronto was discovered and this give us glimpses of his personal life, including some complaints about health issues from both parties. These letters contrast sharply with Marcus’ later attitude toward coping with pain, as demonstrated in The Meditations. There he also happens to quote a letter by Epicurus that talks about avoiding complaints and responding wisely when suffering from an illness. It’s fascinating to compare this letter of Epicurus with the letters Marcus received from Fronto, which exhibit a much less resilient attitude toward pain.
The point I wanted to make is that Marcus’ rhetoric teacher was perhaps bound to be more expressive in complaining about his condition. Over time, though, as Marcus progressed in his studies of Stoicism he learned to adopt a much more philosophical attitude toward his own experience of physical pain and suffering.
Marcus doesn’t provide a neat list of Stoic strategies for coping with pain but by closely reviewing the text of The Meditations we can identify roughly seven different methods he employed. This chapter explores those in detail and discusses how they can be applied by us today, in a way that’s more informed by modern research on psychological coping skills.
The Stoics were also influenced by the Cynic concept of “voluntary hardship” and learning to endure pain, through repeated exposure to coping with discomfort. We explore that idea and some very striking metaphors the Cynics used to explain their concept of radical acceptance of unpleasant sensations. For instance, they said that if we try to grab a snake by the tail we’re likely to get bitten but the person who has the courage to seize it behind its head will actually be safer. These ideas about facing discomfort and radically accepting it, in order to cope better, are very similar to strategies used in modern-day mindfulness and acceptance based psychotherapy. So although they seem paradoxical at first, we have evidence that they can be very effective.
6. The Inner Citadel and War of Many Nations
This chapter opens with the story of an exceptionally dramatic battle described by the Roman historian Cassius Dio, apparently a turning point in the war on the northern frontier. He explains that Marcus’ legionaries actually clashed with the Sarmatian cavalry on the frozen surface of the River Danube, fighting them on the ice. I once heard that this scene was considered for inclusion in the Russell Crowe movie Gladiator, which features Richard Harris as Marcus Aurelius. It wasn’t used in the end but it seems the ice battle scene was later recycled for a movie set in Roman Britain called King Arthur.
We explore Stoic techniques that help reduce anxiety, beginning with the so-called “reserve clause”, a mental strategy that involved adding a caveat like “Fate permitting” to every intended action. That leads naturally into the famous Stoic technique called premeditation of adversity, through which Marcus and other Stoics would mentally rehearse potential misfortunes each day in order to rehearse viewing them with philosophical indifference.
This chapter reviews seven different ways in which psychological techniques like premeditation can bring about beneficial psychological changes and help us overcome anxiety. We know that there are many different processes that mental imagery can potentially activate in our minds, for therapeutic change. We also compare Marcus’ life on the northern frontier to his memories of pleasant holidays in his family villas in Italy. He refers several times to the notion that the peacefulness of these idyllic retreats can be recaptured wherever he is, even in the mud and chaos of battle, if he knows how to detach his mind from externals, like the Stoics taught him.
This chapter reviews the connection between Stoic techniques described by Marcus and others and similar methods found in modern evidence-based psychotherapy, such as cognitive distancing, worry postponement and decatastrophizing. We know a lot more about how these techniques work now so with that research at our disposal we can be more specific about the best way to actually apply Stoic practices in modern life, in order to deal with worry and anxiety.
7. Temporary Madness
This chapter begins with the dramatic story of the civil war between Marcus Aurelius and one of his own generals, called Avidius Cassius. Although Marcus was almost universally remembered by Romans as an exceptionally wise and benevolent emperor, he clearly had some enemies. In The Meditations he mentions being surrounded by those who don’t share his values and would rather see him dead. There are other hints of conflict as well but the historical fact of the civil war provides conclusive evidence that Marcus faced political opposition from other powerful Romans during his reign. Marcus and Avidius Cassius were very contrasting characters. I think it’s fair to say that Marcus was more of a military dove and Cassius more of a hawk. Cassius seems to have thought Marcus was too weak and not aggressive enough against Rome’s enemies.
Perhaps the most striking thing about this incident is the speech that Cassius Dio says Marcus delivered to his gathered troops as they were preparing to march southeast and face the usurper’s rebel army in battle. Astoundingly, Marcus is shown pardoning everyone involved in the uprising against him. If that’s true it would undoubtedly have shocked his troops and was clearly a reflection of his Stoic principles regarding forgiveness and the folly of seeking revenge. Ironically, with a pardon on the table, and facing a superior army, the legions of Avidius Cassius lost their desire to fight. He was assassinated by his own officers bringing the civil war to an end only a few months after it had started. Marcus earned the trust of the men under his command through his wisdom and compassion. Cassius forced his will on others through violence, and his men were afraid of him but apparently not very loyal.
In this chapter we therefore explore the Stoic approach to empathy and forgiveness and look at how these provide remedies for anger. We know Marcus struggled with his own temper at first because he says so in The Meditations. He actually provides a neat list of ten therapeutic strategies for managing anger, which he calls ten “gifts from Apollo”, the god of healing. We go through this in detail in this chapter and compare them to similar methods used for anger management in modern cognitive-behavioural therapy.
The chapter concludes by returning to the story and the aftermath of the civil war. Marcus stood by his word and not only forgave most of those involved in the civil war but actually protected the family of Avidius Cassius from persecution. However, after Marcus’ death, his son Commodus, who was no philosopher and somewhat less forgiving, had them hunted down and burned alive as traitors.
8. Death and the View from Above
[This is an excerpt from the final chapter.]
Vindobona, March 17, 180 AD. The emperor beckons his guard to come close and whispers: Go to the rising sun, for I am already setting. He barely has enough strength to pronounce these words. Marcus glimpses fear in the young officer’s eyes. The guard hesitates for a moment before nodding awkwardly and returning to his post at the entrance to the imperial quarters. Marcus pulls the sheet above his head and rolls over uncomfortably, as if to go to sleep for the last time. He can feel death beckoning him on all sides. How easy it would be to slip into oblivion and be free from the pain and discomfort once and for all. The pestilence is devouring his frail old body from within.
He hasn’t eaten for days, weakening himself by fasting. Now, as the sun goes down outside everything is very quiet. His eyelids flutter, although the pain keeps him awake. The emperor slips in and out of consciousness. But he doesn’t die.
He thinks to himself, “Your eyes feel so heavy now — it’s time to let them close.” The sweet sensation of consciousness dissolving begins to creep over him . . .
I must have fallen asleep, or lost consciousness again. I can’t tell if my eyes are open or closed. Everything is dark. Soon it will be daybreak outside and the sparrows will sing their morning song. Spring has broken and the streams have thawed. Their waters flow into the mighty river passing by the camp outside.
The soldiers picture the spirit of the Danube as an ancient river god. He silently offers us all a lesson if only we pause to listen: all things change, and before long they are gone. You cannot step into the same river twice, Heraclitus once said, because new waters are constantly flowing through it. Nature herself is a rushing torrent, just like the Danube, sweeping along all things in her stream. No sooner has something come into existence than the great river of time washes it away again, only to carry something else into view. The long-forgotten past lies upstream from me now, and downstream waits the immeasurable darkness of the future, vanishing from sight.
I won’t be needing my medicines or physicians again. I’m relieved the fuss is over. The time has come to let the river wash me away too. Change is both life and death. We can try to stall the inevitable, but we never escape it. It’s a fool’s game,
With meats and drinks and magic spells To turn aside the stream and hold death at bay.
Looking back, it seems more obvious to me now than ever before that the lives of most men are tragedies of their own making. Men let themselves either get puffed up with pride or tormented by grievances. Everything they concern themselves with is fragile, trivial, and fleeting. We’re left with nowhere to stand firm. Amidst the torrent of things rushing past, there’s nothing secure in which we can invest our hopes.
You may as well lose your heart to one of the little sparrows who nest by the riverbank — that’s what I used to say. As soon as it’s charmed you, it will flit away, vanishing from sight. I once set my heart on my own little sparrows. I called them my chicks in their nest: thirteen boys and girls, given to me by Faustina. Now only Commodus and four of the girls are left, wearing grave faces and weeping for me. The rest were taken before their time, long ago now. At first I grieved terribly, but the Stoics taught me how to both love my children and endure when Nature reclaimed them. When I was mourning my little twin boys, Apollonius patiently consoled me and helped me slowly regain my composure. It’s natural to mourn — even some animals grieve the loss of their young. But there are those who go beyond the natural bounds of grief and let themselves be swept away entirely by melancholy thoughts and passions. The wise man accepts his pain, endures it, but does not add to it.
Sellars is a lecturer in Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London and a member of Wolfson College, Oxford. He is also the author of two other well-received books on this subject: Stoicism (2006) and The Art of Living (2009), and the editor of the recent Routledge Handbook of the Stoic Tradition (2016). He’s one of the founder members of Modern Stoicism, the group behind Stoic Week. (For transparency: I’m a member of the same team.)
This is a very small book, only 96 pages, but that’s part of its appeal. It presents a very concise and yet authoritative account of Stoic philosophy aimed at the lay reader, although written by a leading scholar in this field. In that respect, it reminds me of Stoicism: A Very Short Introduction by Brad Inwood, professor of philosophy and classics at Yale. More and more books on Stoicism are appearing and there are many articles now on the Internet, although the quality varies and often articles and even books on this subject perpetuate basic misconceptions. Sellars’ book, like Inwood’s, helps to address this problem by presenting Stoicism in an accessible manner, while nevertheless being based upon many years of serious academic scholarship.
Lessons in Stoicism is currently available in hardback, ebook, and audiobook formats. (I hope the audio version helps make it accessible to a wider audience.) The table of contents provides a good flavour of the book:
The Philosopher as Doctor
What Do You Control?
The Problem with Emotions
Dealing with Adversity
Our Place in Nature
Life and Death
How We Live Together
Sellars begins by emphasizing that what I call the “medical model of philosophy”, the idea that philosophy is a psychotherapy, was explicitly stated by the Stoics and, as Sellars notes, goes back at least as far as Socrates, and quite probably even to earlier Greek philosophers. The school that placed most emphasis, though, on the notion of philosophy as a psychological therapy was Stoicism:
The philosopher, [Epictetus] says, is a doctor, and the philosopher’s school is a hospital — a hospital for souls.
It’s important to spell this out because several modern critics of Stoicism-influenced self-help have (rather bizarrely) tried to argue that modern psychotherapists, myself included, are completely wrong to interpret it in this way. The Stoics made it crystal clear, though, that they conceptualized philosophy as being, among other things, a form of medicine or therapy for the psyche. It’s not a new idea!
The task of the philosopher, conceived as a doctor for the soul, is to get us to examine our existing beliefs about what we think is good and bad, what we think will benefit us, and what we think we need in order to enjoy a good, happy life.
Sellars also dedicates a whole chapter to the fundamental Stoic doctrine that some things are up to us and other things are not. Earlier authors such as William Irvine somewhat confused readers by implying that this distinction was meant to distinguish between external things which they assume to be under our influence to varying degrees. (Hence, Irvine suggested introducing a “Trichotomy of Control”.) Sellars makes it clear, though, that Epictetus said he was distinguishing between our own voluntary judgments and everything else. Moreover, as Sellars highlights, the Stoics recognized that much, perhaps most, of what goes on in our minds is involuntary. It’s specifically our voluntary judgments, though, that they’re interested in demarcating from the rest of our experience.
Sellars also directly tackles the mistaken tendency to conflate Stoicism, the Greek philosophy, with stoicism, the modern concept of an unemotional “stiff upper-lip” coping style.
In modern English the word ‘stoic’ has come to mean unfeeling and without emotion, and this is usually seen as a negative trait.
That is definitely not what “Stoicism” means, although the two things are frequently confused, including in many articles on the subject on the Internet.
Contrary to the popular image, the Stoics do not suggest that people can or should become unfeeling blocks of stone.
The ancient Stoics themselves frequently explained that their goal was not to be unfeeling like a man made of stone, i.e., a statue. It is unnatural and inhuman for someone to be totally unemotional, as though they have a heart of stone or iron, and it is therefore unStoic.
The Stoics certainly do not envisage turning people into unfeeling blocks of stone. So, we’ll still have the usual reactions to events — we’ll jump, flinch, get momentarily frightened or embarrassed, cry — and we’ll still have strong caring relationships with those close to us. What we won’t do, however, is develop the negative emotions of anger, resentment, bitterness, jealousy, obsession, perpetual fear or excessive attachment. These are the things that can ruin a life and that the Stoics think are best avoided.
Sellars frames Stoic metaphysics and theology in relatively naturalistic terms:
The official Stoic view is that there is a rational principle within Nature, responsible for its order and animation. They call this ‘God’ (Zeus), but it is not a person, and nothing supernatural — it simply is Nature.
He compares this to the “Gaia Hypothesis” of environmentalist and futurist James Lovelock. “For the Stoics,” writes Sellars, “‘God’ and ‘Nature’ are just two different names for the same single living organism that encompasses all things.”
Sellars also helps to refute the misconception that Stoics are somehow passively fatalistic — something obviously untrue when we consider the lives of real historical Stoics such as Cato the Younger and Marcus Aurelius.
Our actions can and do make a difference. They can themselves be causes at play that contribute to the outcome of events. As one ancient source put it, fate works through us. We are ourselves contributors to fate and parts of the larger natural world governed by it.
The point the Stoics were making was basically that once things have turned out as they have there’s no point complaining or wishing that they were otherwise. Sellars rightly notes that this “philosophical attitude” toward adversity, which accepts the reality of our situation and urges us to get on with life regardless, is foundational to the ancient Stoic therapy of the passions. He quotes Marcus Aurelius:
Nature gives all and takes all back. To her the man educated into humility says: ‘Give what you will; take back what you will.’ And he says this in no spirit of defiance, but simply as her loyal subject.
Some (almost fundamentalist) modern proponents of Stoic theology are very hostile to the mere suggestion that ancient Stoics could have seriously considered any form of agnosticism. They even deny that any modern scholar would ever entertain such a view. However, that’s demonstrably not the case. Sellars, for instance, has repeatedly noted that Stoics such as Marcus Aurelius were willing to at least question the providential nature of the universe.
While Seneca stressed the providential order within Nature, Marcus focuses more on the inevitability of events. In a number of passages in his Meditations, he appears to express agnosticism on whether Nature is a rational, providential system or merely a random accumulation of atoms banging together in an infinite void. Marcus was no physicist, and his duties as emperor hardly left him time to investigate the matter in detail himself. In any case, his final view was that for practical purposes it doesn’t matter a great deal. Whether Nature is ruled by a providential deity, a cybernetic feedback system or blind fate, or is simply the chance product of atomic interactions, the response from us should always be the same: accept what happens and act in response as best we can.
Whether Providence exists or the universe is ruled by mere physical chance — “God or atoms”, as Marcus put it — either way Stoic Ethics is still the most philosophically justified philosophy of life. Whether or not we believe that the cosmos is a single living creature, which the Stoics called Zeus, what matters is that we’re able to view our own lives as part of a greater whole:
The lesson here is that we are but parts of Nature, subject to its greater forces and inevitably swept along by its movements, and we shall never be able to enjoy a harmonious life until we fully comprehend this.
Sellars broaches the subject of our own death through references to the concept of making the best use of our time, from Seneca’s On the Shortness of Life.
Learning to live well is, paradoxically, a task that can take a lifetime. The wisest people of the past, Seneca adds, gave up the pursuit of pleasure, money and success in order to focus their attention on this one task.
Sellars goes on to discuss Epictetus’ portrayal of life as a gift, which can be taken away at any moment. Rather than bitterly resent this or deny it, we should embrace our mortality and make the best use of the opportunity that life affords us to excel by cultivating wisdom and virtue.
Another all-to-common misconception of Stoicism is the idea that it’s somehow self-centred. Many modern fans of Stoicism see it in this way, unfortunately. It’s actually quite baffling because one of the major themes of The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius is how to live in harmony with the rest of mankind: social virtue, cosmopolitanism, brotherly love, natural affection, etc. How can anyone read The Meditations without noticing that these and similar ideas are emphasized on virtually every page?
As Sellars notes, the Stoics, like Aristotle before them, asserted that “human beings are by nature social and political animals.” Sellars, however, links this to the notion found in Epictetus, and earlier Stoics, that we have a duty to fulfill certain natural and social roles to the best of our ability, such as being a good parent, being a good spouse, doing our job well, and so on. However, our ultimate duty is to be a good human being in the broadest sense.
Beyond specific roles, such as being a parent, we might also think more broadly about being a member of a much wider community of people, and most broadly of all as simply being a member of the human race. Does this involve any duties or responsibilities? The Stoics think it does. We have a duty of care to all other human beings, and they suggest that as we develop our rationality we shall come to see ourselves as members of a single, global community of all humankind.
As Seneca puts it, we have two levels of social duty: one toward the universal city, embracing all of mankind, and another toward the specific community to which we have been assigned by accident of birth. For Stoics, to neglect our social obligations and kinship with the rest of mankind is to wrench ourselves unnaturally apart from humanity, which is essentially a pathological form of spiritual and psychological alienation. “For the Stoics,” writes Sellars, “people are people, all equal in their shared rationality and instinct for virtue.”
“This focus on sociability and equality challenges the idea”, as Sellars puts it, “that Stoics were indifferent to other people” — something which is in fact another surprisingly widespread misconception of the philosophy.
He also links this to a discussion of the Stoic doctrine that we should be cautious about the company we keep because of the effect it has upon us. It’s worth quoting in full what he says here because it bears on the modern development of Stoic communities:
So, if you are trying to develop some new, positive habits, it may be best to avoid the company of those whose lives embody everything you are trying to escape. Instead, try to spend time with those whose values you share or admire. This is one of the reasons why philosophers in antiquity tended to group together into schools. It also probably stands behind the monastic traditions of various world religions. It is why aspiring Stoics gathered together in antiquity, in places such as Epictetus’s school, and it’s why today people who want to draw on Stoicism in their daily lives are often keen to make contact with others trying to do the same, either in person or online.
Ancient Stoics did not live in a bubble, isolated from the rest of humanity. They married, had children, formed communities, taught students, wrote books, engaged in politics, fought in defence of their nations, risked and even sacrificed their lives standing up to tyrants — for the welfare of their communities and ultimately the benefit of mankind.
Every day, it seems, more entrepreneurs and leaders in the business community are becoming interested in Stoic philosophy. Stoicism offers a whole philosophy of life, which promises to help us attain not only greater emotional resilience in the face of adversity, but also a deeper sense of purpose and meaning in life, and in our work.
Marcus is remembered not merely for his long reign but for his practice of Stoicism — a school of philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium around 300 B.C. Stoicism counsels its adherents not to place too much importance on things outside their control. Rather than fret about the frustrations of our daily lives, the Stoics advise, it is better to bring one’s will in accord with nature and approach the present moment with composure. […] Marcus’ worldview was not an idle intellectual exercise […] but a form of wisdom forged by real-world experiences of friendship, loss and crisis. — The Wall Street Journal
The transcript of an interview about Stoicism that I did recently for Wharton business school’s radio station was published on the World Economic Forum’s website. I was asked how Stoicism works in the business community…
It’s a strange thing. I didn’t anticipate this, but one of the biggest groups of people interested in it seems to be millennials who work in the tech industry. I feel like it [kind of took] root in Silicon Valley. Where I live in Toronto, I meet a lot of young people working in software development or the tech industry in general who are particularly drawn to this philosophy.
Tim Ferriss & Ryan Holiday
Most of the younger people I meet who are into Stoicism actually say they were introduced to the philosophy through references made to it by Tim Ferriss or Ryan Holiday.
Ferriss has a whole section of his website devoted to Stoic resources, including the free PDF and (paid) audiobook versions of his own Tao of Seneca book. Tao of Seneca consists of the famous “moral letters” of Seneca to his friend and fellow-Stoic Lucilius, alongside which Ferriss has included thoughts from various “modern Stoics”. (One of the chapters in Tao of Seneca contains an interview I gave for Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic website.) Ferriss says that his own life was transformed in 2004 when he discovered the writings of Seneca.
[Stoicism] can be thought of as an operating system for thriving in high-stress environments. At its core, it teaches you how to separate what you can control from what you cannot, and it trains you to focus exclusively on the former. — Tim Ferriss, The Tao of Seneca
However, Ferriss says that in addition to building emotional resilience for coping with negative experiences in life, “Stoicism can also be used to maximize the positive”.
For this reason, Stoicism has spread like wildfire throughout Silicon Valley and the NFL in the last five years, becoming a mental toughness training system for CEOs, founders, coaches, and players alike. Super Bowl champions like the Patriots and Seahawks have embraced Stoicism to make them better competitors. In my own life, the results have been incredible. — Tim Ferriss, The Tao of Seneca
Ferriss actually says that looking back on the preceding two decades of his life, he credits “nearly all of the biggest successes — and biggest disasters averted — to my study of Stoicism and, specifically, the writing of Seneca.”
Tim Ferriss also recommends the works of Ryan Holiday, author of The Obstacle is the Way and co-author (with Stephen Hanselman) of The Daily Stoic. In his article Stoicism 101: A Practical Guide for Entrepreneurs, Holiday writes:
For those of us who live our lives in the real world, there is one branch of philosophy created just for us: Stoicism. It doesn’t concern itself with complicated theories about the world, but with helping us overcome destructive emotions and act on what can be acted upon. Just like an entrepreneur, it’s built for action, not endless debate. — Ryan Holiday, Stoicism 101
Holiday’s bestselling books have introduced countless people to Stoicism, especially younger generations of readers. Whenever I speak to people who are into Stoicism and work in the tech industry, in particular, I can guess that they’ve probably read The Obstacle is the Way.
Business Leaders on Stoicism
Several prominent CEOs have likewise spoken about the influence of Stoic philosophy on their lives. For example, in a recent interview, Jules Evans asked Jonathan Newhouse, the CEO of Condé Nast, how he got into Stoicism.
It was 1999. I ran into Alain de Botton in a restaurant. He was having dinner with a friend of mine. He said he was working on a book of philosophy, and mentioned Seneca, who I’d never read. I went out and brought Seneca’s Letters From a Stoic. And it just blew me away. I found it impeccably logical. That led me on to Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus. I read just about everything I could. Now I usually take one of the Stoic books with me when I travel. I incorporated it into my thinking and it’s shaped the way I think and interact with the world in a very positive way.
He explains very succinctly how Stoic philosophy influences his worldview:
People devote a lot of time and emotional effort to things that are beyond their control — what other people do, how other people react to them, even the weather. And they set themselves up for pain, anxiety, disappointment and fear. The Stoics recognised that it was foolish, or counterproductive, to attach oneself to things that are beyond one’s control, when there are things within one’s control — one’s thoughts, attitudes and moral purpose.
I loved the idea that you could make your goal to live a life of moral purpose. I was very taken with the ethical and moral point-of-view of Stoicism. When you read the Stoics, you often come across the word ‘virtue’. They saw the goal of the wise person as to lead a virtuous life. Today, the word ‘virtue’ is almost never heard, except ironically. If you asked 100 people what their goal was in life, hardly any would say leading a virtuous life.
Being an entrepreneur in the tech world means creating new experiences, opening untapped markets, and forging new paths. Starting a business is risky and involves charting foreign territory. That’s why I find the teachings of the Stoics important for remaining grounded through tumultuous endeavors. — Eugenio Pace in Forbes
Pace adds the following Stoic advice for coping with stress at work,
Epictetus said, “Some things are up to us, and some are not up to us.” As a fellow technology entrepreneur, founder and CEO, the best advice I have for liberating yourself from anxieties that make you less happy and productive is simple: Stop worrying about what you can’t control.
Stoicism, at its core, reminds us that life and everything in it, is impermanent. Focusing on our circumstances or pinning our happiness on the attainment of possessions is a surefire recipe for disappointment. The Stoics, such as Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, instead encourage us to free ourselves from the control such pursuits exert over us and focus on the things that are in our direct control: our thoughts, feelings, and desires. In this sense, Stoicism is uniquely suited to serve the needs of entrepreneurs. — Chris Myers in Forbes
He concludes, “In helping us to identify what we can control in our lives and to find happiness in what we already have, Stoic philosophy allows us to mute the terrible emotional roller coaster that is entrepreneurship.”
Stoicism has also been applied to quite specific challenges in the modern workplace. Adam Piercey, an engineering technologist, wrote a recent Medium article on Stoicism in Tech for Better Programming, which explores specific ways Stoicism can be used to handle stressful situations like peer review. He applies wisdom from Marcus Aurelius to the challenge of receiving critical feedback a software engineer.
As Marcus said, you should “immediately consider on the basis of what opinion about good or evil he did wrong.” If you choose to view the feedback as constructive and positive, you can learn and proceed. The Stoics believed that we should welcome criticism in this spirit and that our role is to make the best use of criticism. If you begin any feedback experience with the mindset that it comes from a place of good intentions, there is a significant opportunity to learn and grow. — Adam Piercey in Better Programming
In another Forbes article, titled Five Reasons Why Stoicism Matters Today, Rob Goodman and Jimmy Soni, authors of Rome’s Last Citizen, argue that Stoicism is “a philosophy for leadership”.
Stoicism teaches us that, before we try to control events, we have to control ourselves first. Our attempts to exert influence on the world are subject to chance, disappointment, and failure — but control of the self is the only kind that can succeed 100% of the time. From emperor Marcus Aurelius on, leaders have found that a Stoic attitude earns them respect in the face of failure, and guards against arrogance in the face of success. — Goodman and Soni in Forbes
[W]hat if I told you that there’s a school of philosophy dating back to ancient Greece that can help you handle all of these obstacles on a daily basis and, as a bonus, may even enrich your quality of life? And better still, you don’t have to be a scholar to figure out how to use it. It’s called Stoicism, and it’s a practical philosophy that’s used by some of today’s greatest thinkers and business minds, including Tim Ferriss, Ryan Holiday, Arianna Huffington and Jack Dorsey. — Tank in Entrepreneur
He lists the main ways in which Stoicism can help entrepreneurs as:
Setting priorities, by focusing on what’s essential
Curbing stress, by distinguishing what is up to us from what is not
Stopping procrastinating, by being aware of our own mortality and the precious nature of time
Managing fear, by premeditatio malorum or the systematic anticipation of future misfortunes
A few years ago now, Carrie Sheffield, founder of the digital media startup Bold TV, interviewed me for a Forbes article titled Want An Unconquerable Mind? Try Stoic Philosophy. She opens by stating that the ideas of ancient Stoics “hold fascinating promise for business and government leaders tackling global problems in a turbulent, post-recession slump.”
Prominent business thinker Nassim Nicholas Taleb praises Stoic philosophy in his Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, a book that Stoic Week organizer Donald Robertson says nudged many curious readers toward Stoicism. Robertson, a Scottish-born therapist and classics enthusiast, led workshops on psychological resilience for managers at oil giant Shell called “How to think like a Roman Emperor,” based on the life of stoic philosopher-king Marcus Aurelius. — Sheffield in Forbes
Taleb’s bestselling book, Antifragile, mentioned above, contains a whole chapter dedicated to his Stoic hero, Seneca. Indeed, Taleb actually says that Seneca “solved the problem of antifragility […] using Stoic philosophy”. Taleb rightly emphasized that Stoic philosophy is not about being totally unemotional, rather it’s about replacing unhealthy emotions with healthy ones.
Seen this way, Stoicism is about the domestication, not necessarily the elimination, of emotions. It is not about turning humans into vegetables. My idea of the modern Stoic sage is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into information, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking. — Taleb, Antifragile
We went on to discuss the famous Stoic “Dichotomy of Control” and how it might be related to the psychology of leadership.
“Anyone in a leadership role must come to terms quickly with the paradox of their position: that leaders must wield power but that often so much that happens lies outside of their control,” Robertson told Forbes. “How do we accept the limits of our power without slumping into passivity?” — Sheffield in Forbes
She also asked me about common misconceptions of Stoicism.
Robertson said people sometimes confuse stoicism with submissiveness, but calls this “a very superficial misunderstanding.” Students of ancient stoicism tended to be sons from wealthy, cosmopolitan families. Many went on to rule empires or advise great leaders in commerce and war. “Can you point to a single historical stoic who sat on his hands?” quips Robertson… “It’s just not in the nature of their philosophy to be doormats or stay-at-home types.”
The Economist’s1843 Magazine ran an article recently on “Stoicism’s revival” called Life Lessons from Ancient Greece, which quoted me on the links between Stoicism and modern cognitive-behavioural therapy.
Many modern stoics argue that this doctrine has already been partially revived in the form of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), the “problem-focused” therapy now widely seen as psychology’s best weapon against depression, anxiety and every kind of unhelpful thinking. Like stoicism, CBT encourages practitioners to distinguish between events and perceptions, and nearly every CBT textbook contains some version of Epictetus’s dictum: “Men are disturbed not by things, but the views they take of them.” Yet although the founders of CBT openly acknowledged the influence of stoicism, they tended to adopt the techniques without reference to the wider moral framework. “Stoicism transcends most modern self-help and therapy by offering the view that much of our emotional suffering is caused by false values, such as egotism, materialism or hedonism,” says Donald Robertson, a cognitive-behavioural psychotherapist who is one of the organisers of Stoic Week. — Rowland Manthorpe in The Economist
Another good source of information is Modern Stoicism, a nonprofit organization run by a multi-disciplinary team of volunteers who carry out research on Stoicism and disseminate information on its application to modern-day living. Modern Stoicism run the annual Stoicon conference and multiple Stoicon-x mini conferences in different cities around the world. They also run the annual Stoic Week online course, in which over eight thousand people took part last year. The figures from these events show that Stoicism is continuing to experience a revival and it’s often among entrepreneurs and leaders in business that it’s catching on the most.
The Leadership Qualities of a Stoic Emperor
Many of the articles above discuss ways in which the basic concepts and practices of ancient Stoicism can be of benefit in the work environment today. However, I’ve also tried exploring the relevance of Stoicism from a rather different perspective by looking at the qualities of a good ruler which Marcus Aurelius sought to learn from his adoptive father and predecessor the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius.
We can summarize advice based on the leadership qualities Marcus admired as follows:
Get along with other people
Be hardworking and conscientious
Don’t seek praise or flatter others
Don’t be afraid of criticism
Be content with the simple things in life
You can read more about how Marcus defined those qualities as exemplified by the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius in my previous Medium article on the subject. They’re all consistent with the teachings of Stoicism, although Antoninus Pius himself doesn’t appear to have been a Stoic.
In his Attic Nights, the grammarian Aulus Gellius relates the following anecdote in which Herodes Atticus, a famous Sophist, criticizes the Stoic concept of apatheia, or freedom from irrational passions. However, Herodes was a notoriously quick tempered and violent individual, who stood trial (and was acquitted) of kicking his pregnant wife to death. So his own life may not be the best advertisement for his theory of the passions.
A discourse of Herodes Atticus on the power and nature of pain, and a confirmation of his view by the example of an ignorant countryman who cut down fruit-trees along with thorns.
I once heard Herodes Atticus, the ex-consul, holding forth at Athens in the Greek language, in which he far surpassed almost all the men of our time in distinction, fluency, and elegance of diction. He was speaking at the time against the ἀπάθεια, or “lack of feeling” of the Stoics, in consequence of having been assailed by one of that sect, who alleged that he did not endure the grief which he felt at the death of a beloved boy with sufficient wisdom and fortitude. The sense of the discourse, so far as I remember, was as follows: that no man, who felt and thought normally, could be wholly exempt and free from those emotions of the mind, which he called πάθη, caused by sorrow, desire, fear, anger and pleasure; and even if he could so resist them as to be free from them altogether, he would not be better off, since his mind would grow weak and sluggish, being deprived of the support of certain emotions, as of a highly necessary stimulus. For he declared that those feelings and impulses of the mind, though they become faults when excessive, are connected and involved in certain powers and activities of the intellect; and therefore, if we should in our ignorance eradicate them altogether, there would be danger lest we lose also the good and useful qualities of the mind which are connected with them. Therefore he thought that they ought to be regulated, and pruned skilfully and carefully, so that those only should be removed which are unsuitable and unnatural, lest in fact that should happen which once (according to the story) befell an ignorant and rude Thracian in cultivating a field which he had bought.
“When a man of Thrace,” said he, “from a remote and barbarous land, and unskilled in agriculture, had moved into a more civilized country, in order to lead a less wild life, he bought a farm planted with olives and vines. Knowing nothing at all about the care of vines or trees, he chanced to see a neighbour cutting down the thorns which had sprung up high and wide, pruning his ash-trees almost to their tops, pulling up the suckers of his vines which had spread over the earth from the main roots, and cutting off the tall straight shoots on his fruit and olive trees. He drew near and asked why the other was making such havoc of his wood and leaves. The neighbour answered; ‘In order to make the field clean and neat and the trees and vines more productive.’ The Thracian left his neighbour with thanks, rejoicing that he had gained some knowledge of farming. Then he took his sickle and axe; and thereupon in his pitiful ignorance the fellow cuts down all his vines and olives, lopping off the richest branches of the trees and the most fruitful shoots of the vines, and, with the idea of clearing up his place, he pulls up all the shrubs and shoots fit for bearing fruits and crops, along with the brambles and thorns, having learnt assurance at a ruinous price and acquired boldness in error through faulty imitation. Thus it is,” said Herodes, “that those disciples of insensibility, wishing to be thought calm, courageous and steadfast because of showing neither desire nor grief, neither wrath nor joy, root out all the more vigorous emotions of the mind, and grow old in the torpor of a sluggish and, as it were, nerveless life.”
In this excerpt from Attic Nights, the grammarian Aulus Gellius, a contemporary of Marcus Aurelius, relates an amusing anecdote. Herodes Atticus was a wealthy Sophist, known for his eloquence but also his violent temper. He was family friend of Marcus Aurelius, but also a critic of Stoicism.
The apt use made by Herodes Atticus, the ex-consul, in reply to an arrogant and boastful young fellow, a student of philosophy in appearance only, of the passage in which Epictetus the Stoic humorously set apart the true Stoic from the mob of prating triflers who called themselves Stoics.
While we were students at Athens, Herodes Atticus, a man of consular rank and of true Grecian eloquence, often invited me to his country houses near that city, in company with the honourable Servilianus and several others of our countrymen who had withdrawn from Rome to Greece in quest of culture. And there at that time, while we were with him at the villa called Cephisia, both in the heat of summer and under the burning autumnal sun, we protected ourselves against the trying temperature by the shade of its spacious groves, its long, soft promenades, the cool location of the house, its elegant baths with their abundance of sparkling water, and the charm of the villa as a whole, which was everywhere melodious with plashing waters and tuneful birds.
There was with us there at the time a young student of philosophy, of the Stoic school according to his own account, but intolerably loquacious and presuming. In the course of the conversations which are commonly carried on at table after dinner, this fellow often used to prattle unseasonably, absurdly, and at immoderate length, on the principles of philosophy, maintaining that compared with himself all the Greek-speaking authorities, all wearers of the toga, and the Latin race in general were ignorant boors. As he spoke, he rattled off unfamiliar terms, the catchwords of syllogisms and dialectic tricks, declaring that no one but he could unravel the “master,” the “resting,” and the “heap” arguments, and other riddles of the kind. Furthermore, as to ethics, the nature of the human intellect, and the origin of the virtues with their duties and limits, or on the other hand the ills caused by disease and sin, and the wasting and destruction of the soul, he stoutly maintained that absolutely no one else had investigated, understood and mastered all these more thoroughly than himself. Further, he believed that torture, bodily pain and deadly peril could neither injure nor detract from the happy state and condition of life which, in his opinion, he had attained, and that no sorrow could even cloud the serenity of the Stoic’s face and expression.
Once when he was puffing out these empty boasts, and already all, weary of his prating, were thoroughly disgusted and longing for an end, Herodes, speaking in Greek as was his general custom, said: “Allow me, mightiest of philosophers, since we, whom you call laymen, cannot answer you, to read from a book of Epictetus, greatest of Stoics, what he thought and said about such big talk as that of yours.” And he bade them bring the first volume of the Discourses of Epictetus, arranged by Arrian, in which that venerable old man with just severity rebukes those young men who, though calling themselves Stoics, showed neither virtue nor honest industry, but merely babbled of trifling propositions and of the fruits of their study of such elements as are taught to children.
Then, when the book was brought, there was read the passage which I have appended, in which Epictetus with equal severity and humour set apart and separated from the true and genuine Stoic, who was beyond question without restraint or constraint, unembarrassed, free, prosperous and happy, that other mob of triflers who styled themselves Stoics, and casting the black soot of their verbiage before the eves of their hearers, laid false claim to the name of the holiest of sects:
‘Speak to me of good and evil.’ — Listen: The wind, bearing me from Ilium, drove me to the Cicones. Of all existing things some are good, some evil, and some indifferent. Now the good things are virtues and what partakes of them, the evil are vice and what partakes of vice, and the indifferent lie between these: wealth, health, life, death, pleasure, pain.— ‘How do you know this?’ — Hellanicus says so in his Egyptian History. For what difference does it make whether you say that, or that it was Diogenes in his Ethics or Chrysippus or Cleanthes? Have you then investigated any of these matters and formed an opinion of your own? Let me see how you are accustomed to act in a storm at sea. Do you recall this classification when the sail cracks and you cry aloud? If some idle fellow should stand beside you and say: ‘Tell me, for Heaven’s sake, what you told me before. It isn’t a vice to suffer shipwreck, is it? It doesn’t partake of vice, does it?’ Would you not hurl a stick of wood at him and cry: ‘What have we to do with you, fellow? We perish and you come and crack jokes.’ But if Caesar should summon you to answer an accusation…”
On hearing these words, that most arrogant of youths was mute, just as if the whole diatribe had been pronounced, not by Epictetus against others, but against himself by Herodes.
What might a code of conduct based on Stoicism look like?
What might a code of conduct based on Stoicism look like?
Something about the chivalric codes of the Middle Ages seems curiously akin to the ethical ideals of Stoicism. Ancient Stoic philosophy didn’t have an explicit code of honor, as far as we know. However, according to the doxographer Stobaeus, the Stoics maintained that the goal of their philosophy, “living in agreement with nature”, was synonymous with “living honorably”. Moreover, a basic code of honorable conduct is clearly implicit in the surviving writings of Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and our other sources for the philosophy.
Stoics liked to have lists that could be easily committed to memory. Most obviously, there is their list of four cardinal virtues, which goes back at least as far as the portrayal of Socrates in the dialogues of Plato: Wisdom (sophia), Righteousness (dikaiosune), Fortitude (andreia), and Temperance (sophrosune); or Wisdom, Justice, Courage, and Moderation, in more modern language. These virtues came to be represented by four corresponding animals in the traditional symbol known as the tetramorph: the man of wisdom, eagle of justice, lion of fortitude, and ox or bull of temperance.
The doxographer Diogenes Laertius said that the Stoics described the supreme good as “honorable” because it consists of these four factors required for the perfection of human nature: the virtues of wisdom, justice, courage, and, as he writes, orderliness (self-discipline or moderation). The “honorable”, he says, denotes those qualities which make their possessor genuinely praiseworthy, by allowing him to fulfil his natural potential as a human being. The Stoics concluded therefore that the wise man alone is honorable and “that only the honorable is good”. The good and the honorable are synonymous, in other words. However, the good is also that which is beneficial. The Stoics believed that doing what is honorable is in our own best interests because it allows us to flourish as human beings.
We might briefly summarize the Stoic code of honor described below as follows:
Love the truth and seek wisdom
Act with justice, fairness, and kindness toward others
Master your fears and be courageous
Master your desires and live with self-discipline
In addition to this fourfold scheme, some of the Stoics also refer to a threefold rule of life, which Epictetus describes as the distinction between the Discipline of Assent, the Discipline of Action, and the Discipline of Desire and Aversion. It’s easy to combine these threefold and fourfold models, though, as shown below. The Stoics regarded courage and moderation as two aspects of the discipline required to live consistently in accord with wisdom and justice, by mastering our fears and desires. We can see that in the famous slogan attributed to Epictetus: endure and renounce. Endure our fears, through courage, and renounce our desires, by exercising moderation — the Discipline of Desire and Aversion.
Zeno, the founder of Stoicism, defined the supreme goal as a “smoothly flowing life”, or “living in agreement with Nature”. For the Stoics this came to mean living consistently and in harmony with our own nature, as rational beings, with the rest of mankind, and with Nature as a whole, particularly the external events that befall us in life. For example, Marcus Aurelius uses this threefold model to express the basic Stoic code of conduct throughout The Meditations.
Every nature is contented when things go well for it; and things go well for a rational nature when it [1:] never gives its assent to a false or doubtful impression, and [2:] directs its impulses only to actions that further the common good, and [3a:] limits its desires and aversions only to things that are within its power, and [3b:] welcomes all that is assigned to it by universal nature. (Meditations, 8.7)
Likewise,
It is sufficient that [1:] your present judgement should grasp its object, that [2:] your present action should be directed to the common good, that [3:] your present disposition should be well satisfied with all that happens to it from a cause outside itself. (Meditations, 9.6)
Marcus attributes these ideas to Epictetus:
No one can rob us of our free will, said Epictetus. He said too that [1:] we ‘must find an art of assent, and [2:] in the sphere of our impulses, take good care that they are exercised subject to the “reserve clause”, and that they take account of the common interest, and that they are proportionate to the worth of their object; and [3a:] we should abstain wholly from immoderate desire, and [3b:] not try to avoid anything that is not subject to our control’. (Meditations, 11.36–37)
1. The Discipline of Assent — Stoic Mindfulness
The Virtue of Wisdom: Love the Truth
The very word philosophy literally means “love of wisdom”, which entails the love of truth. Socrates taught that genuine wisdom consists in grasping the truth about the most important things in life. For Stoics, wisdom therefore consists in our ability to grasp the nature of the supreme good, i.e., the goal of life. Put differently, it’s the knowledge of what is good, bad, and indifferent. You can therefore also describe wisdom as the ability to know what helps us flourish and achieve fulfillment (eudaimonia) in life, or what harms us in that regard. The Stoics use the word prosoche (attention) to describe the practice of continual mindfulness regarding our ruling faculty and its use of judgements in daily life, especially the way our value judgements shape our desires and emotions. Wisdom requires “Stoic mindfulness”, in other words.
However, the virtue of wisdom, and therefore Stoic honor, is also associated with the ability to be scrupulously honest both with oneself and others. Wisdom can’t exist alongside self-deception and justice can’t exist as long as we’re deceiving others. Wisdom is the ability to grasp the truth about the most important things in life, to perceive its implications for daily life, and to communicate as clearly as possible on that basis. Epictetus calls this the Discipline of Assent. We should avoid giving our assent to impressions that are false. Rather we must firmly grasp hold of certain basic truths such as those concerning the nature of the supreme good in life, i.e., that it consists of wisdom and virtue.
In the 19th century, Gautier summarized the Ten Commandments of medieval European chivalry. We can compare his code of honor with the four Stoic virtues and three disciplines. However, chivalry was wedded to Christianity so instead of loving philosophical truth and wisdom, Gautier’s equivalent would be the more doctrinaire: “Thou shalt believe all that the Church teaches and thou shalt observe all its directions.” Yet Christian knights are expected to embrace truth and honesty just like the Stoic code: “Thou shalt never lie, and shalt remain faithful to thy pledged word.” A Stoic code of honor would therefore require being ruthlessly honest with yourself and not deceiving others — Stoics also avoid jumping to conclusions rashly in areas where the truth is uncertain. The virtue of wisdom is traditionally symbolized in the tetramorph by the image of a man.
2. The Discipline of Action — Stoic Philanthropy
Justice: Seek to Help Others, Fate Permitting
Wisdom applied to our actions leads to the virtue of justice, although in Stoicism this is a broad concept which could better be described in more general terms as social virtue. Marcus Aurelius constantly reminds himself that his actions should be dedicated to the fundamental goal of life, the attainment of wisdom and virtue. However, the virtue of justice must also aim at an external outcome and for Stoics that is the common welfare of mankind. Everything a Stoic does should contribute, in some small way, to benefiting humanity, or at least not do the opposite. We might describe this as “Stoic philanthropy” or brotherly love.
However, as other people are externals, beyond our direct control, Stoics have to pursue their welfare with the caveat “Fate permitting” — known as the Stoic “reserve clause” (hupexairesis). Cicero explained this through the famous metaphor of the archer. He can take aim at a target and fire his arrow skilfully but once it has flown from the bow, whether or not it hits the target is in the hands of fate. He takes aim to the best of his ability but accepts that the target could move, for instance, and accepts either success or failure with emotional equanimity.
Marcus says that the Discipline of Action is threefold. It requires acting for the common welfare of mankind, with the caveat “Fate permitting”, but also using reason to judge the relative value (axia) of different outcomes in order to determine the most appropriate course of action. The Stoic virtue of justice consists of two main qualities: kindness and fairness.
Kindness is simply the opposite of anger, according to the Stoics. Anger typically consists in the desire to harm others because of some perceived injury, the desire for vengeance. Kindness, by contrast, is the desire to help others. We help others, even our “enemies”, by educating them and bringing them closer to wisdom. However, the Stoics recognize that it’s natural to “prefer” certain external advantages in life, such as health, wealth, and reputation, so long as they’re only desired within reasonable bounds and not excessively. That means, though, that we must exercise judgment to rationally determine in each case the difference between having enough sleep, for instance, and having too much.
Gautier’s chivalric code requires medieval knights to defend their nation and the Christian community: “Thou shalt defend the Church”, “Thou shalt love the country in which thou wast born.” However, it also requires knights to pledge their lives to protecting the poor and the weak: “Thou shalt respect all weaknesses, and shalt constitute thyself the defender of them”, “Thou shalt be generous, and give largesse to everyone”, “Thou shalt be everywhere and always the champion of the Right and the Good against Injustice and Evil.” Stoics likewise dedicate their lives to acting wisely and with the social virtues of justice, fairness, and kindness, acting for the common welfare of mankind, Fate willing, i.e., while accepting that the outcome is not directly under their control. The virtue of justice is symbolized in the tetramorph by the image of an eagle.
3. The Discipline of Desire and Aversion — Stoic Acceptance
Seek not for events to happen as you wish but wish events to happen as they do and your life will go smoothly. — Handbook
The last two virtues are closely-related and can be viewed as the twin virtues of self-mastery. Epictetus combines them in his slogan “endure and renounce” (or “bear and forbear”). Epictetus believed that novice Stoics should begin their training by focusing on these virtues. We can call this “Stoic acceptance” because it requires a kind of resignation to external events, beyond our direct control, that the majority of people struggle against, seeking to change or avoid. The Stoics famously used the metaphor of a dog tied to a cart to illustrate this. The fool is like a dog who tries to sit down or run in the opposite direction but is dragged along roughly by its leash anyway. The wise man is like the dog who keeps pace with the cart, for whom things go smoothly because he accepts and adapts to his fate.
a. Courage: Endurance in the Service of Wisdom and Justice
With courage and endurance we face our fears and patiently bear unpleasant feelings, such as hunger and fatigue, and even pain. The Stoics constantly remind themselves of the paradox that our fear does us more harm than the things of which we’re afraid. However, the majority of people tend to confuse recklessness with courage. Courage without wisdom, as Socrates pointed out, though, is not a virtue — it’s just reckless or foolhardy. Even criminals act fearlessly, or endure pain and discomfort, but they do so in the pursuit of base and vicious goals.
Gautier’s chivalric code requires knights to show courage: “Thou shalt not recoil before thine enemy.” Stoics likewise view pain with relative indifference and are willing to face things feared by the majority of people, in the service of wisdom and justice. The virtue of courage is symbolized in the tetramorph by the image of a lion.
b. Moderation: Sacrifice in the Service of Wisdom and Justice
Through the virtue of moderation or temperance, we limit our desires to what reason determines to be appropriate under the circumstances, renouncing excess and forbearing from over-indulgence. As the famous maxim of the Delphic Oracle said: “nothing in excess” — all things in moderation. However, the majority of people, again, tend to confuse the appearance of self-discipline with the real thing. Vain and greedy individuals often exercise self-discipline in one area of their lives in order to indulge themselves in others.
Gautier’s version of the chivalric code requires Christian knights to fulfil their duties in a conscientious and disciplined manner: “Thou shalt perform scrupulously thy feudal duties, if they be not contrary to the laws of God.” Stoics view pleasure with relative indifference and are therefore willing to forego things desired by the majority of people, living in a self-disciplined manner in the service of wisdom and justice. The virtue of temperance is symbolized in the tetramorph by the image of an ox or bull.
Every so often I receive emails from people who have struggled to cope with their own alcoholism or that of their loved ones. They tell me how they’ve found great support and consolation in the writings of ancient Stoic philosophers, such as The Meditations of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. Those who are familiar both with the Stoics and the Twelve Step Program often recognize connections between them. The Serenity Prayer, for instance, made famous by Alcoholics Anonymous, neatly encapsulates one of the most characteristic doctrines of Stoic philosophy.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.
The Stoic philosopher Epictetus taught his students the same thing:
What, then, is to be done? To make the best of what is in our power, and take the rest as it naturally happens. — Discourses, 1.1
There are countless other references in the Stoic literature to making a firm distinction between what’s under our control and everything else: what we do versus what merely happens to us. We should take greater responsibility for what’s up to us, according to Stoicism, and get less upset about what is not. Wisdom consists largely in bearing this simple — almost commonsense — distinction in mind and being clearer about its practical and emotional implications for us in daily life.
Modern Stoics tend to call this idea the “dichotomy of control” or “Stoic fork”. However Stoicism offers much more than just this wise maxim — it’s a complete philosophy of life. One person who contacted me about alcoholism and Stoicism therefore described it as “the Serenity Prayer on steroids”.
Stoic Therapy
The most influential psychological principle of Stoicism comes from another one of Epictetus’ sayings:
It’s not things that upset us but our judgments about things. — Encheiridion, 5
That became the inspiration for modern cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), the leading evidence-based approach to psychotherapy today. Both Stoicism and CBT are based on the idea that our emotions are largely — if not exclusively — determined by our underlying beliefs. From that shared premise they draw similar conclusions about how best to change feelings by changing our voluntary thoughts (cognitions) and actions (behaviour).
For the Stoics, the beliefs that upset us ultimately take the form of strong value judgments about things outside our direct control being either extremely bad or extremely good, leading to excessive fear or desire respectively. The Stoics argued that it was irrational — a veritable recipe for neurosis — to have a strong desire to get or avoid external things insofar as they are beyond our direct control. It’s healthier to focus on our own voluntary actions instead and take more responsibility for the way we respond to the situations that befall us.
We need to learn to do our own work, in a sense, by focusing more attention on what we can do rather than worrying about the things fate throws at us. When we can’t change something we need to learn to accept that fact with Stoic indifference. As Shakespeare put it:
Things without all remedy should be without regard. — Macbeth
The Eleventh Step uses more religious language to express this attitude of emotional acceptance in dealing with alcoholism:
[We sought] through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
We should, in other words, learn to accept reality — the Will of God, if you prefer theological language — and adapt accordingly to the demands of our situation.
The Eleventh Step also contains the following retrospective meditation technique.
When we retire at night, we constructively review our day. Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest or afraid? Do we owe an apology? Have we kept something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person at once? Were we kind and loving toward all? What could we have done better? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time? Or were we thinking of what we could do for others, of what we could pack into the stream of life? But we must be careful not to drift into worry, remorse or morbid reflection, for that would diminish our usefulness to others.
“After making our review”, the authors say, “we ask God’s forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken.” This obviously resembles an influential technique described in The Golden Verses of Pythagoras, which was adopted by the Stoics. We find it in the writings of Epictetus, Seneca, and also in a book by Galen, Marcus Aurelius’ court physician, about Stoic therapy practices. Before retiring to sleep each night, it advises us to review the events of the day three times asking ourselves three questions: What we did well? What we did badly? What we omitted to do?
The Big Book continues by describing a complementary prospective meditation technique:
On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. Under these conditions we can employ our mental faculties with assurance, for after all God gave us brains to use. Our thought-life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives.
This also resembles morning meditation practices found in The Golden Verses of Pythagoras, and the writings of the Stoics.
The Stoics on Alcohol
So how did the Stoics view alcohol? The historian Diogenes Laertius, a “doxographer” who recorded the views of Greek philosophers, says that the Stoics typically drank wine in moderation, but would not allow themselves to get drunk. Stobaeus, another doxographer, tells us that the Stoics classified excessive love of wine as a disease, although curiously they considered hating it too much to be one as well. Although the Stoics typically appear to have favoured moderation, they may perhaps have agreed with the Twelve Step Program’s abstinence approach for individuals who struggle to limit their drinking.
Stoics had to be careful they were abstaining for the right reasons, though. Epictetus seems to assume that his students have sometimes become “water drinkers”, presumably abstaining from wine, for the purposes of training in Stoicism (Discourses, 3.14). He criticizes them for telling everyone they meet “I drink water”, as if the goal is to show off. He says that if what they’re doing is good for them they should be satisfied with that and shut up instead of going on about it to the annoyance of others.
The Stoic wise man (or woman) views alcohol itself with studied indifference and focuses instead on the use he makes of it. Everything can be used either well or badly, according to the Stoics. So the wise man pays attention to the present moment and whether he is acting wisely or foolishly, with self-discipline or recklessness, in a healthy manner or an unhealthy one, and so on. To help ourselves make progress in this direction, we should actually set aside time to study how people we admire cope with temptation, trying to learn from their attitude and emulate their behaviour.
Marcus Aurelius’ most important role model was his adoptive father the emperor Antoninus Pius. Marcus writes in his notes that what was traditionally said of Socrates could be said of Antoninus: he was able to abstain from or enjoy those things that the majority of us are either too weak to abstain from or enjoy over-indulgently (Meditations, 1.16). Marcus says that Antoninus showed strength, endurance, and restraint whether he chose to abstain from something or partake in it, and that this is “the mark of someone who possesses a well-balanced and invincible character”.
The Emperor Lucius Verus
In my recent book, How to Think Like a Roman Emperor, I used stories from the life of Marcus Aurelius to illustrate ways Stoicism can be applied in practice to help us deal with psychological problems today. However, we can also learn from other people’s mistakes. Marcus’ temperance stood in contrast to the notorious self-indulgence of his adoptive brother and co-emperor, Lucius Verus. From the way Roman historians describe him it appears likely that he was an alcoholic. We’re told that when he was meant to be commanding the legions in the Parthian war instead he would spend his time throwing parties, gambling, and drinking. He was obsessed with the chariot races and had a huge crystal goblet made, named Volucer after his favourite horse, which we’re told “surpassed the capacity of any human draught”.
Lucius would get drunk and “wander about at night through taverns and brothels with only a common travelling-cap for a head-covering, revel with various rowdies, and engage in brawls, while concealing his identity”, according to the Historia Augusta. Sometimes he would stagger drunk into the cook-shops and throw heavy coins at the cups, smashing them, and “often, they say, when he returned, his face was beaten black and blue”. He liked to feast late into the night, until he passed out at his banqueting table, and had to be carried to bed by his servants. We’re told his health was “weakened by such follies of debauchery and extravagance”.
The same historian claims that shortly after being acclaimed emperor, Lucius’ character was revealed to be “weak and base” when he was supposed to be leading the Roman counter-offensive against a Parthian invasion. Indeed, “while a legate [a Roman general] was being slain, while legions were being slaughtered, while Syria meditated revolt, and the East was being devastated”, Lucius spent all of his time hunting in the countryside or partying with his entourage in the brothels and taverns of one pleasure resort after another.
We’re told Marcus was sorely tested by the vices of his brother, particularly his “excessive candour and hot-headed plain speaking”, described as the result of “natural folly”. Lucius was struggling to cope with his feelings, though. During the Parthian War, Lucius wrote to a family friend complaining in desperation of “the anxieties that have rendered me very miserable day and night, and almost made me think that everything was ruined.” He’s probably referring to problems negotiating with the hostile Parthians, but he was clearly overwhelmed by emotional distress. Binge drinking, casual sex, gambling, and partying became his way of coping, albeit badly, with the pressures of his role as Marcus’ junior co-emperor.
In The Meditations, Marcus arguably damns him with faint praise and says only that observing Lucius’ character compelled him to take better care of his own, although he was also reassured by his brother’s respect and affection (1.17). I think Marcus perhaps watched helpless as Lucius’ life disintegrated, and vowed that he would never let himself make the same mistakes. Instead, he spent decades improving his character through training in Stoicism. If Lucius had practised Stoicism like his brother could it have helped him?
Frank’s Recovery Story
Frank, a retired NYPD Officer, got in touch to tell me about the role Stoicism played in his own recovery:
In the rooms of AA with the Twelve Steps and my sponsor I built the archway that I walked through a free man, and which lead me to the Stoics. On my journey I was searching for anything that might help me spiritually because my childhood faith did not help nor did I want it. Then I found some old quotes and everything changed. They fell in line with what I was learning from going through the Twelve Steps. I read in The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius “Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.” I identified with these sayings and realized that they were along the same lines as the principles I was learning in AA. So I looked up Marcus Aurelius and discovered he was an emperor of Rome. The words “Stoic philosopher” appeared next to his name. So I began reading up on the Stoics.
Frank’s embrace of Stoicism reinforced and expanded what he’d learned from the Twelve Step Program. He was now more focused on taking responsibility for his own actions, more philosophical about setbacks, and more contented with life.
I’ve come to learn that I control very little! However, Stoic and Twelve Step principles such as looking for opportunities to experience gratitude in everything that happens to me good or bad — amor fati or “love of one’s fate” — have helped put me on the path of living happy joyous and free.
(Frank’s blog article Gratitude in my Attitude goes into more detail about his personal journey and Stoicism.)
Stoicism and Alcoholism
So what did the ancient Stoics have to say about alcohol and addiction? Well, the Stoics trained themselves to develop the virtue of temperance by practising various psychological techniques on a regular, often daily, basis. For example, they would often make an effort to describe things to themselves in very matter-of-fact language, like an ancient natural philosopher making observations about animal behaviour or a physician describing the symptoms of a disease. Stripping away emotive language and strong value judgments allowed them to retain a stronger grip on reality, which Stoics called having an “objective representation” (phantasia kataleptike).
When Marcus Aurelius gazed upon a bottle of the exquisite Falernian wine, therefore, he would remind himself that it was merely fermented grape juice, and that the fine meat dishes set before him were just the corpses of fish, birds, and pigs (Meditations, 6.13). We should strip away all the verbal embellishments that cloud our judgement of the things we desire and view the naked truth with total objectivity. Napoleon employed the same down-to-earth strategy by saying that a throne is merely a bench covered in velvet.
I think Stoicism appeals to many people who struggle with alcoholism because it offers more than just self-help advice. The language in which it’s expressed in the classics is often striking, beautiful, and memorable. These stories from ancient philosophy stick in people’s minds and their constant presence can help us to gradually find a new orientation in life whereas sound advice from modern self-help books is often more forgettable. Stoicism isn’t just a therapy, either, but a whole philosophy of life. People who embrace it find that it can give them the opportunity to recover a sense of purpose and direction in life, and in some cases that can help fill a void that they’d previously been using drugs or alcohol to conceal from themselves.
Most importantly, though, Stoicism is a philosophy that contains a call to action. The Stoics wanted us to apply reason to our lives, and engage in philosophical discussions about the meaning of life, but only insofar as it actually helps us to improve our characters. We also have to make decisions, arrive at conclusions, and put wisdom into practice. As Marcus Aurelius said:
Waste no more time arguing about what it means to be a good man and just be one. — Meditations, 10.16
