What is Stoicism about?

What’s the point of Stoicism? The answer will be different depending on who you ask, but, if we’re being academic about it, there’s only one correct answer: to develop a virtuous character. Ancients who practiced it, practiced Stoicism because doing so was said to be the path to eudaimonia, to a flourishing life.

If you’re a Stoic (regardless of synthesis), your mission is plain: develop your character towards virtue and away from vice. This mission sounds simple but, as anyone truly committed to the endeavour will tell you, it’s more likely you’ll spend the rest of your life as a Stoic prokoptôn (a student of Stoicism who is only ever working to make progress) than it is you’ll ever become a Stoic Sage (a “master” of Virtue).

The Stoic Sage

The ancient Stoics said a master of Virtue (the Sage) was “as rare as the phoenix”, and they said so for an excellent reason: Sages are entirely moral, never vicious, and always in alignment with Nature. The phoenix is, of course, mythical, it doesn’t (nor did it ever) exist. This means the ancient Stoics were either alluding to sagehood being an unobtainable status (which most Stoic scholars would not agree with) or that sagehood was truly and exceptionally difficult to achieve.

For argument’s sake, let’s imagine we do want to become a Sage; how do we become one? How do we become entirely moral, never vicious, and always in alignment with Nature?

Paying attention

While not a term exclusive to Stoicism, Prosoche, when used in the context of Stoicism, means “the practice of paying attention” to our emotions, thoughts, attitudes, and actions. It is the practice of examining what we are doing and asking ourselves, “is this reflective of sage-like behaviour? Is this moving towards Virtue?”

Prosoche is a fundamental feature of Stoic practice for, if we are not paying attention to what we are doing, how could we ever determine whether we were falling short of the Stoic ideal? If we cannot determine when we are falling short of the Stoic ideal, how can we ever make progress towards that ideal? And if we can never make progress towards the Stoic ideal, how can we call ourselves Stoics?

Take all the cold showers you want, repeat memento mori one-hundred times every day during your lunch break, and keep telling yourself that there are things you can control and things you can’t control until you are blue in the face, by all means! But if you are not paying attention to your character, you cannot make progress, and if you don’t care about making progress, you cannot call yourself a Stoic just because you regularly remind yourself of your own death.

Memento mori

Memento mori isn’t a way of desensitizing yourself to your own death, it’s a way of remembering that you’re actively running out of time to develop your character towards Virtue.

Premeditatio Malorum

Premeditatio malorum (premeditation of evils) isn’t merely to prepare yourself for loss or tragedy so you can process it better when it comes, it’s to remind you to give appropriate care to things and people while you can, because being a fine friend, a caring son or daughter, a compassionate partner, or a kind dog owner, is reflective of sage-like behaviour.

Stoic journaling isn’t about writing selfindulgent missives about how you’d like the world to be, it’s about reflecting on your thoughts, putting them into physical form (written words), and sorting out where and how you can improve yourself so you can improve the world.

What is “being Stoic”?

Contemporary Stoics too frequently have these practices confused for “being Stoic”, but “being Stoic” has nothing to do with any individual action or thought. Instead, Stoicism has everything to do with what you’re working towards! If you’re working towards a virtuous character, and if you’re paying attention to your words, emotions, thoughts, actions, and attitudes – reflecting on them and actively working to bring them more into alignment with sage-like behaviour – that is Stoicism.

So, how does a Stoic get to Carnegie Hall? The same way as anyone else: practice, practice, practice – and by paying attention, of course. I

f you’ve enjoyed this article, I hope you’ll subscribe to my free Substack at https://stoicismpod.substack.com. I also hope, if you have any feedback or thoughts, that you’ll reach out to me directly via tanner@nosages.com.

Tanner is the host of the Practical Stoicism podcast, co-author of the Daily Stoic Journaling program, and owner of Practical Philosophy. He considers himself a "Stoicism Communicator" by trade and creates daily education content related to both Stoicism and philosophy in general.

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