It is one of my favorite thought experiments. We write something down, imagining that we put the note in the bottle and throw it into sea. Someday the bottle will be washed ashore on some unimaginable coast. We don’t know who picks it up and when. Above all, we don’t know how they will interpret our words (this is the epitome of all writers’ experience, by the way). In such a scenario, what should the concise Stoic message coming from the year 2020 be? Assuming, of course, that it is me who gets to write it.

Stoicism is all about enjoying and exercising our agency.

I believe that the best one-liner capturing the gist of Stoicism is the following. Stoicism is all about enjoying and exercising our agency. The wording is short but contains a lot and there is a lot to unpack. 

Once we grasp it properly, agency becomes truly unlimited and invincible just as Stoicism promises.

Starting with the last one, Stoicism is about agency. It is the discipline of thought and code of conduct that allows us to put our overall capabilities to best use. In order to do so, we need to frame agency in a proper way. All the particulars of Stoicism, all these “spiritual exercises,” all the “mental techniques,” do just that. They provide the details of how agency needs to be understood. Once we grasp it properly, agency becomes truly unlimited and invincible just as Stoicism promises. 

There is no Stoicism without action and it truly is a philosophy of living an active life

Second, agency needs to be exercised—there is no agency without using it. Agency which remains in potentiality is not real agency. There is no Stoicism without action and it truly is a philosophy of living an active life. It needs to be clear that all the widespread stereotypes of Stoics as passive and lifeless figures are… well, stereotypes. Misleading to boot. 

Stoicism, after all, is about finding happiness and ultimate satisfaction in life

Finally, a Stoic not only exercises but enjoys agency. This is of what the Stoic happiness consists—which is the heart of all of it. Stoicism, after all, is about finding happiness and ultimate satisfaction in life. Bliss is to be found in grasping our agency properly, in exercising it and enjoying the process. Simple as that. And as always a bit hard to attain. 

This is my brief message in the bottle. It may seem unorthodox to some and it is so for a reason. For what I propose today, in 2020, is reformed Stoicism, which is somehow different from the one from 2000 years ago. I intend to reframe certain ideas developed back then and some of then I omit entirely. I do that in my books in detail—the message in the bottle needs to end here. Obviously, it speaks more of my own view of Stoicism than of “Stoicism as such.” That’s no disadvantage though, for only such approach keeps ideas alive and allows them to evolve. 

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Dr. Piotr Stankiewicz is an author and philosopher writing in English and in his native Polish. He is the proponent of the concept of re-formed Stoicism (http://myslnikstankiewicza.pl/reformed-stoicism). 

His English books on Stoicism include Manual of Reformed Stoicsim (2020) and Does Happiness Write Blank Pages? On Stoicism and Artistic Creativity? (2018). He lives in Warsaw, Poland. 

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