The Stoic Magazine Library

What is a ‘Stoic response’ to a loss?

I have been fortunate enough to travel the world several time and see many wondrous things. But there are also countries I haven’t been to and sights I haven’t seen. One such sight that I had always wanted to see, but never had the opportunity, was the Northern Lights. 

When I look out of my window I can see the flatiron building featured on the cover. Why is it featured here? I will come to it in a minute. But first a question.

The “Hopefulists” 

It seems that there was a little-known group of Greek philosophers known as the “Hopefulists’ (Elpistikoi). 

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BE A PHILOSOPHER-IN-RESIDENCE IN ATHENS 

Alkistis Agio and Matina Agiorgiti announce the Philosopher-in-Residence program at the Agiorgiti residence. The residence is open for those who want to spend some time in Athens (one week to one year) pursuing their philosophical interest. The program is open to everyone who is interested in ancient Greek philosophy. 

Our time is short

How to do I lead my best life? This dilemma is common to all humans, not just Stoics. When we ask ourselves this question, the first thing we need to realize is that our life is made up of time. When we waste our time, we waste our life. Yet time goes faster than we realize, as Seneca realized.

Over the past several months, we have been redesigning our website in an effort to make it the single most useful website for Stoic practitioners. While the website does offer articles that relate to Stoic theory, our main emphasis is on practice: What can I do now to lead a better life?

Stoicism is based on reason, not revelation. If it is based on reason, then Stoic knowledge cannot be the Stoics' exclusive preserve. Anyone who reasons should be able to come to similar conclusions, whether a Stoic or not. That is the premise of this issue.

Stoicism is a philosophy of life. Its path may be hard but it sets no traps. The Stoic traps we discuss in this issue are the traps we set for ourselves when we practice Stoicism. And such traps are many.

In A Scandal in Bohemia, a conversation between Sherelock Holmes and Watson goes like this:

We cover in this issue some of the less commonly discussed themes of Stoicism. Our contributors in this issue argue that we are used to comforts, pity others who are less fortunate, find it hard to cope with situations like the pandemic, find it difficult to cope with transience and imperfection, and we are tired.

Morality is said to exude charisma. From Socrates to Gandhi, people who held no formal power exuded moral authority and have attracted people drawn by their moral charisma.

Some aspects of Stoic philosophy can be blindingly obvious. For instance, who could possibly take issue with the basic tenet of Stoicism that some things in our life are up to us and others are not?

Stoic literature, especially for a casual reader, is not brimming with joy. Probably because of that, over time, the word ‘stoic’ came to be associated with enduring hardship without complaining rather than with the joy of living.