An impulse purchase, I picked up a copy of Tanner Campbell’s and Kai Whiting’s book, What is Stoicism? A brief and accessible overview. I’ve read some of Ryan Holiday’s stuff, as well as various translations of Epictetus' work (not Discourses, though). Tanner was kind enough to respond to my BlueSky post, writing:
Thanks Miguel! Hopefully the next 40 pages have you feeling the same! Thanks so much for supporting our work! #Stoicism
A Few Thoughts
Every time I read a Stoic philosopher, I can’t help but slap my forehead and exclaim, “D’oh! Why didn’t I read this sooner?” It is silly to keep doing that, but I can’t help but realize how much I accomplished without Stoic principles (which, by the way, appear everywhere but one may not see them since they are expressed in different ways or in support of other perspectives).
“Virtue is not just theoretical knowledge; it is also practical like both medical and musical knowledge” (-Musonius Rufus)
I have to focus on the positive, but darn, when people ask for life’s instruction manual, I have wanted to point to Epictetus' work. Now, though, I may just give them a copy of What is Stoicism?
Toxic Stoicism?
At least one of the authors of this book, What is Stoicism?, suggests that there is a different, perhaps toxic, version of Stoicism out there on social media. I’m glad that didn’t find its way into what I’ve read so far. But it’s not really a surprise that ideas get perverted, twisted over time. Everyone wants to make a buck.
Of course, I found the book itself is very clear, thoughtful, and the ideas flow logically from one to the next. Nothing toxic about it.
Quadrant Note-Taking
In my more academic blog, I write about quadrant note-taking and promise to take my approach to this book. The problem with quadrant note-taking that I found is that I don’t know what the organizing principles are for each quadrant. And, as a result, my notes ended up in quadrants but a jumbled mess. I suppose one of the benefits is trying to make sense of them all.
To do that, I have to ask, these questions:
- What should the four quadrants be?
- What information/ideas should go into each?
So, I admit that I cheated. I uploaded pictures of my handwritten notes into Perplexity, then asked it to organize my notes into quadrants. This is what it came up with.
Quadrant Notes on Pages 1-41 of What is Stoicism?
Key Terminology
- Stoa Poikile: Painted Porch
- Eudaimonia: Living a life worthy of being lived
- Virtue: Perfect moral character (just, temperate, wise, courageous)
- Vice: Immoral character (unjust, cowardly, lacking self-control)
- Indifferent: Neither virtue nor vice
- Preferred indifferents: Rationally beneficial to pursue
- Dispreferred indifferents: Detrimental to pursue
- Impressions: What we believe is happening or true
- Eph' hemin: That which is up to us (Dichotomy of Control)
Foundational Principles
- Stoics do not declare moral absolutes
- Context matters in moral decisions
- The only way to achieve eudaimonia is through living a life of virtue
- What you do is a manifestation of who you are; you are either virtuous or not
- Becoming a good (virtuous) person cannot be hindered by external circumstances
Core Concepts & Practices
- Prosoche: Practice of paying attention to thoughts, actions, attitudes, impressions, assents, and desires
- Prokoptontes: Stoics in training progressing toward virtue
- Testing impressions is the philosopher’s first and most important task
- Falsely assenting to information or opinions is problematic
- Our virtue is a product of our choices, thoughts, and actions
Dichotomy of Control
- Some things are within our power to choose, others are not
- Within our control: thoughts, emotions, actions, attitudes
- Outside our control: body, property, reputation, office
- Learn to accept limits of control
- By realizing limits of control, we can limit negative impacts
If I had to do this over again, which I guess I will with the next set of pages, I will probably organize them differently than four quadrants.
Quotes
Now what didn’t come across in Perplexity’s summation of my notes are the quotes in the book. That makes sense, but I like quotes, so I’m sharing them below:
Epictetus
“Some things are good, others bad, and others indifferent; that the virtues and what partakes in the virtues are good, while things of the opposite nature are bad, and that wealth, health, and reputation are indifferent.”
You know, I had never read about the distinction between Virtue, Vice, and preferred indifferents vs dispreferred indifferents. That was quite interesting and helpful.
“The most important task of a philosopher and his first task, is to test out impressions and distinguish between them, and not to accept any impression unless it has been duly tested.”
This was quite an important quote, I thought, about impressions, or as the authors put it, “An impression is what we believe is happening (or what we believe to be true). If we proceed to believe it as fact, we have “assented to an impression.” So one must be careful about assenting to an impression. I liked how the authors of another book series, Crucial Conversations, put this:
- Something happens-> We tell ourselves a story about it -> We act on the story we told ourselves rather than what actually happened
As you can imagine, that approach is problematic. With little to no evidence, it’s easy to goof things up.
“Some things are within our power, while others are not. Within our power are opinion, motivation, desire, aversion, and in a word, whatever is of our own doing; not within our power are our body, our property, reputation, office, and in a word, whatever is not of our own doing.”
The authors make an important point about what is in one’s power and what is not. They suggest that one “learn to accept the limits of any control we have and decide what is appropriate (or not) given these limits. By realizing the limits of control, we can limit the degree to which we can be negatively impacted.” Whew, powerful stuff, right?