Misplaced Pages

#817182

71-432: In the year 45 BC, when Cicero was around 61 years old, his daughter, Tullia , died following childbirth. Her loss afflicted Cicero to such a degree that he abandoned all public business and left the city retiring to Asterra, which was a country house that he had near Antium . There he devoted himself to philosophical studies, writing several works, including De finibus . It was his custom to take some friends with him into

142-460: A Corinthian , but a citizen of the world." They held that external differences, such as rank and wealth, are of no importance in social relationships. Instead, they advocated the brotherhood of humanity and the natural equality of all human beings. Stoicism became the most influential school of the Greco-Roman world, and produced a number of remarkable writers and personalities, such as Cato

213-424: A deterministic perspective; in regard to those who lack Stoic virtue, Cleanthes once opined that the wicked man is "like a dog tied to a cart, and compelled to go wherever it goes". A Stoic of virtue, by contrast, would amend his will to suit the world and remain, in the words of Epictetus , "sick and yet happy, in peril and yet happy, dying and yet happy, in exile and happy, in disgrace and happy", thus positing

284-515: A "completely autonomous" individual will, and at the same time a universe that is "a rigidly deterministic single whole". This viewpoint was later described as " Classical Pantheism " (and was adopted by Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza ). Philosopher Julian Baggini has characterized what constitutes one being a Stoic: "To become a stoic is to endorse the truthfulness of its worldview and accept its prescription for how you ought to live, not just to like how it makes you feel." Baggini asserts that

355-410: A Stoic is not just a set of beliefs or ethical claims; it is a way of life involving constant practice and training (or " askēsis "), an active process of constant practice and self-reminder. Epictetus in his Discourses , distinguished between three types of act: judgment, desire, and inclination. which Hadot identifies these three acts with logic, physics and ethics respectively. Hadot writes that in

426-563: A beginning or end to the Universe. According to the Stoics, the logos was the active reason or anima mundi pervading and animating the entire Universe. It was conceived as material and is usually identified with God or Nature. The Stoics also referred to the seminal reason (" logos spermatikos "), or the law of generation in the Universe, which was the principle of the active reason working in inanimate matter . Humans, too, each possess

497-410: A belief in human kinship with Nature or God, a sense of the innate depravity—or "persistent evil"—of humankind, and the futility and temporary nature of worldly possessions and attachments. Both encourage Ascesis with respect to the passions and inferior emotions, such as lust, and envy, so that the higher possibilities of one's humanity can be awakened and developed. Stoic influence can also be seen in

568-443: A certain way; I am the father of my children, the fellow citizen of my fellow citizens, disposed in a certain way in relation to something else. The Stoics propounded that knowledge can be attained through the use of reason . Truth can be distinguished from fallacy —even if, in practice, only an approximation can be made. According to the Stoics, the senses constantly receive sensations: pulsations that pass from objects through

639-491: A clear and unbiased thinker allows one to understand the universal reason ( logos ). Stoicism's primary aspect involves improving the individual's ethical and moral well-being: " Virtue consists in a will that is in agreement with Nature." This principle also applies to the realm of interpersonal relationships; "to be free from anger, envy, and jealousy", and to accept even slaves as "equals of other men, because all men alike are products of nature". The Stoic ethic espouses

710-603: A disciple of Socrates . Zeno's most influential successor was Chrysippus , who followed Cleanthes as leader of the school, and was responsible for molding what is now called Stoicism. Stoicism became the foremost popular philosophy among the educated elite in the Hellenistic world and the Roman Empire to the point where, in the words of Gilbert Murray , "nearly all the successors of Alexander [...] professed themselves Stoics". Later Roman Stoics focused on promoting

781-658: A general personal library. Tullia (daughter of Cicero) Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.150 via cp1114 cp1114, Varnish XID 937001942 Upstream caches: cp1114 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 08:36:58 GMT Stoicism Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy that flourished in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome . The Stoics believed that

SECTION 10

#1732783017818

852-616: A life in harmony within the universe within which we are active participants. Scholars usually divide the history of Stoicism into three phases: the Early Stoa, from Zeno's founding to Antipater ; the Middle Stoa, including Panaetius and Posidonius ; and the Late Stoa, including Musonius Rufus , Seneca , Epictetus , and Marcus Aurelius . No complete works survived from the first two phases of Stoicism. Only Roman texts from

923-486: A person behaved. To live a good life, one had to understand the rules of the natural order since they believed everything was rooted in nature. Stoicism flourished throughout the Roman and Greek world until the 3rd century CE, and among its adherents was Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius . It experienced a decline after Christianity became the state religion in the 4th century CE. Since then, it has seen revivals, notably in

994-445: A portion of the divine logos , which is the primordial Fire and reason that controls and sustains the Universe. The foundation of Stoic ethics is that good lies in the state of the soul itself, in wisdom and self-control. One must therefore strive to be free of the passions . For the Stoics, reason meant using logic and understanding the processes of nature—the logos or universal reason, inherent in all things. The Greek word pathos

1065-1173: A system that became known as Stoic logic and included a deductive system, Stoic Syllogistic, which was considered a rival to Aristotle's Syllogistic (see Syllogism ). New interest in Stoic logic came in the 20th century, when important developments in logic were based on propositional logic. Susanne Bobzien wrote, "The many close similarities between Chrysippus's philosophical logic and that of Gottlob Frege are especially striking". Bobzien also notes that, "Chrysippus wrote over 300 books on logic, on virtually any topic logic today concerns itself with, including speech act theory, sentence analysis, singular and plural expressions, types of predicates , indexicals , existential propositions , sentential connectives , negations , disjunctions , conditionals , logical consequence , valid argument forms, theory of deduction , propositional logic, modal logic , tense logic , epistemic logic , logic of suppositions , logic of imperatives , ambiguity and logical paradoxes ". The Stoics held that all beings ( ὄντα )—though not all things (τινά)—are material . Besides

1136-409: A unified account of the world, constructed from ideals of logic , monistic physics and naturalistic ethics. Of these, they emphasized ethics as the main focus of human knowledge, though their logical theories were of more interest for later philosophers. Stoicism teaches the development of self-control and fortitude as a means of overcoming destructive emotions ; the philosophy holds that becoming

1207-434: A virtuous life, such as if they fell victim to severe pain or disease, but otherwise suicide would usually be seen as a rejection of one's social duty. For example, Plutarch reports that accepting life under tyranny would have compromised Cato 's self-consistency ( constantia ) as a Stoic and impaired his freedom to make the honorable moral choices. A distinctive feature of Stoicism is its cosmopolitanism ; according to

1278-481: Is "a rigidly deterministic single whole". This viewpoint was later described as " Classical Pantheism " (and was adopted by Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza ). Diodorus Cronus , who was one of Zeno's teachers, is considered the philosopher who first introduced and developed an approach to logic now known as propositional logic , which is based on statements or propositions, rather than terms, differing greatly from Aristotle's term logic . Later, Chrysippus developed

1349-503: Is a fatalistic and naturalistic pantheism : God is never fully transcendent but always immanent , and identified with Nature . Abrahamic religions personalize God as a world-creating entity, but Stoicism equates God with the totality of the universe; according to Stoic cosmology , which is very similar to the Hindu conception of existence , there is no absolute start to time, as it is considered infinite and cyclic. Similarly, space and

1420-403: Is nothing to affect any one after death; for all feeling is lost with life, and where there is no sensation, nothing can interfere to affect us. The opinions of others do indeed bring us hope; if it is any pleasure to you to think that souls, after they leave the body, may go to heaven as to a permanent home. Cicero offers largely Platonist arguments for the soul's immortality, and its ascent to

1491-472: Is only through reason that we gain clear comprehension and conviction ( katalepsis ). Certain and true knowledge ( episteme ), achievable by the Stoic sage, can be attained only by verifying the conviction with the expertise of one's peers and the collective judgment of humankind. According to the Stoics, the Universe is a material reasoning substance ( logos ), which was divided into two classes:

SECTION 20

#1732783017818

1562-417: Is our own doing." These suggest a space that is up to us or within our power. A simple example of the Stoic categories in use is provided by Jacques Brunschwig: I am a certain lump of matter, and thereby a substance, an existent something (and thus far that is all); I am a man, and this individual man that I am, and thereby qualified by a common quality and a peculiar one; I am sitting or standing, disposed in

1633-508: Is red, it would be because some part of a universal red body had entered the object. They held that there were four categories : The Stoics outlined that our own actions, thoughts, and reactions are within our control. The opening paragraph of the Enchiridion states the categories as: "Some things in the world are up to us, while others are not. Up to us are our faculties of judgment, motivation, desire, and aversion. In short, whatever

1704-433: Is regarded as the sole evil, or as the greatest of evils that the ills of body and of fortune are held to be infinitesimally small in comparison with it. In the third book, Cicero treats of the best alleviations of sorrow. Cicero's treatment of this is closely parallel to that of pain. He observes that grief is postponed or omitted in times of stress or peril, and he notes that grief is often put on or continued solely because

1775-471: Is regarded by many as the father of early versions of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Stoic philosophy was the original philosophical inspiration for modern cognitive psychotherapy , particularly as mediated by Albert Ellis' Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), the major precursor of CBT. The original cognitive therapy treatment manual for depression by Aaron T. Beck et al. states, "The philosophical origins of cognitive therapy can be traced back to

1846-415: Is sufficient for happiness ", a sage would be emotionally resilient to misfortune. The Stoics also held that certain destructive emotions resulted from errors of judgment, and they believed people should aim to maintain a will (called prohairesis ) that is "in accordance with nature ". Because of this, the Stoics thought the best indication of an individual's philosophy was not what a person said but how

1917-459: Is the only evil; no cause for anger—for others cannot harm you. The Stoics arranged the passions under four headings: distress, pleasure, fear and lust. One report of the Stoic definitions of these passions appears in the treatise On Passions by Chrysippus (trans. Long & Sedley, pg. 411, modified): Two of these passions (distress and delight) refer to emotions currently present, and two of these (fear and lust) refer to emotions directed at

1988-584: Is the source of all in this earthly life that is worth living for. The work contains frequent allusion to ancient fable, the events of Greek and Roman history, and the memorable sayings of heroes and sages. Cicero references also the ancient Latin poets and quotes from their works. The Tusculan Disputations is the locus classicus of the legend of the Sword of Damocles , as well as of the sole mention of cultura animi as an agricultural metaphor for human culture . Cicero also mentions disapprovingly Amafinius , one of

2059-513: Is to fortify the mind with practical and philosophical lessons adapted to the circumstances of life, to elevate us above the influence of all its passions and pains. In each of the dialogues, one of the guests, who is called the Auditor, sets up a topic for discussion. Each dialogue begins with an introduction on the excellence of philosophy, and the advantage of adopting the wisdom of the Greeks into

2130-569: The Meditations , "Each maxim develops either one of these very characteristic topoi [i.e., acts], or two of them or three of them." Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta is a collection by Hans von Arnim of fragments and testimonia of the earlier Stoics, published in 1903–1905 as part of the Bibliotheca Teubneriana . It includes the fragments and testimonia of Zeno of Citium , Chrysippus and their immediate followers. At first

2201-461: The Renaissance ( Neostoicism ) and in the contemporary era ( modern Stoicism ). Philosophy does not promise to secure anything external for man, otherwise it would be admitting something that lies beyond its proper subject-matter. For as the material of the carpenter is wood, and that of statuary bronze, so the subject-matter of the art of living is each person's own life. The Stoics provided

Tusculanae Disputationes - Misplaced Pages Continue

2272-469: The Universe have neither start nor end, rather they are cyclical. The current Universe is a phase in the present cycle, preceded by an infinite number of Universes, doomed to be destroyed (" ekpyrōsis ", conflagration ) and re-created again , and to be followed by another infinite number of Universes. Stoicism considers all existence as cyclical, the cosmos as eternally self-creating and self-destroying (see also Eternal return ). Stoicism does not posit

2343-455: The Church regarded Stoicism as a "pagan philosophy"; nonetheless, early Christian writers employed some of the central philosophical concepts of Stoicism. Examples include the terms "logos", " virtue ", "Spirit", and " conscience ". But the parallels go well beyond the sharing and borrowing of terminology. Both Stoicism and Christianity assert an inner freedom in the face of the external world,

2414-431: The Late Stoa survived. Philosophy does not promise to secure anything external for man, otherwise it would be admitting something that lies beyond its proper subject-matter. For as the material of the carpenter is wood, and that of statuary bronze, so the subject-matter of the art of living is each person's own life. Of all the schools of ancient philosophy, Stoicism made the greatest claim to being utterly systematic. In

2485-891: The Latin language. In the first dialogue the auditor asserts that death is an evil, which Cicero proceeds to refute: Efficiet enim ratio ut, quaecumque vera sit earum sententiarum quas eui, mors aut malum non sit aut sit bonum potius. Nam si cor aut sanguis aut cerebrum est animus, certe, quoniam est corpus, interibit cum reliquo corpore; si anima est, fortasse dissipabitur; si ignis, extinguetur; si est Aristoxeni harmonia, dissolvetur. [...] His sententiis omnibus nihil post mortem pertinere ad quemquam potest; pariter enim cum vita sensus amittitur; non sentientis autem nihil est ullam in partem quod intersit. Reliquorum sententiae spem adferunt, si te hoc forte delectat, posse animos, cum e corporibus excesserint, in caelum quasi in domicilium suum pervenire. For reason will demonstrate that, whichever of

2556-451: The Stoic philosophers". A well-known quotation from Enchiridion of Epictetus was taught to most clients during the initial session of traditional REBT by Ellis and his followers: "It's not the events that upset us, but our judgments about the events." This subsequently became a common element in the socialization phase of many other approaches to CBT. The question of Stoicism's influence on modern psychotherapy, particularly REBT and CBT,

2627-421: The Stoic tradition forms one of the major founding approaches to virtue ethics . The Stoics are especially known for teaching that "virtue is the only good" for human beings, and that external things, such as health, wealth, and pleasure, are not good or bad in themselves ( adiaphora ) but have value as "material for virtue to act upon". Many Stoics—such as Seneca and Epictetus —emphasized that because "virtue

2698-410: The Stoics emphasized ethics as the main focus of human knowledge, though their logical theories were of more interest for later philosophers. Stoicism teaches the development of self-control as a means of overcoming destructive emotions ; the philosophy holds that becoming a clear and unbiased thinker allows one to understand the universal reason ( logos ). Stoicism's primary aspect involves improving

2769-531: The Stoics, all people are manifestations of the one universal spirit and should live in brotherly love and readily help one another. In the Discourses , Epictetus comments on man's relationship with the world: "Each human being is primarily a citizen of his own commonwealth; but he is also a member of the great city of gods and men, whereof the city political is only a copy." This sentiment echoes that of Diogenes of Sinope , who said, "I am not an Athenian or

2840-463: The Universe acts according to its own nature, and the nature of the passive matter it governs. The souls of humans and animals are emanations from this primordial Fire, and are, likewise, subject to Fate: Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things act with one movement; and how all things are

2911-894: The Younger and Epictetus. In particular, they were noted for their urging of clemency toward slaves . Seneca exhorted, "Kindly remember that he whom you call your slave sprang from the same stock, is smiled upon by the same skies, and on equal terms with yourself breathes, lives, and dies." Plotinus criticized both Aristotle's Categories and those of the Stoics. His student Porphyry , however, defended Aristotle's scheme. He justified this by arguing that they be interpreted strictly as expressions, rather than as metaphysical realities. The approach can be justified, at least in part, by Aristotle's own words in The Categories. Boethius ' acceptance of Porphyry's interpretation led to their being accepted by Scholastic philosophy. The Fathers of

Tusculanae Disputationes - Misplaced Pages Continue

2982-437: The active and the passive. The passive substance is matter, which "lies sluggish, a substance ready for any use, but sure to remain unemployed if no one sets it in motion". The active substance is an intelligent aether or primordial fire , which acts on the passive matter: The universe itself is God and the universal outpouring of its soul; it is this same world's guiding principle, operating in mind and reason, together with

3053-518: The belief that their objects are real and great evils; undue gladness and desire, from the belief that their objects are real and great goods. The only preventive or remedy is the regarding, with the Stoics, of virtue as the sole good, and vice as the sole evil, or, at the least, with the Peripatetics, considering moral good and evil as the extremes of good and evil that no good or evil of body or of fortune can be of any comparative significance. In

3124-499: The celestial regions where it will traverse all space—receiving, in its boundless flight, infinite enjoyment. He dismisses the gloomy myths concerning the Greek underworld. But even if death is to be considered as the total extinction of sense and feeling, Cicero still denies that it should be accounted an evil. This view he supports from a consideration of the insignificance of the pleasures of which we are deprived. He illustrates this with

3195-470: The common lot of humanity. Pain and grief may be met, borne and overcome so as not to interfere with our happiness and our permanent well-being. The fourth book treats those passions and vexations which Cicero considers as diseases of the soul. These Cicero classes under the four Stoic divisions: grief (including forms such as envy), fear, excessive gladness, and immoderate desire. They all result from false opinions as to evil and good. Grief and fear arise from

3266-417: The common nature of things and the totality that embraces all existence; then the foreordained might and necessity of the future; then fire and the principle of aether; then those elements whose natural state is one of flux and transition, such as water, earth, and air; then the sun, the moon, the stars; and the universal existence in which all things are contained. Everything is subject to the laws of Fate, for

3337-409: The cooperating causes of all things that exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the structure of the web. Individual souls are perishable by nature, and can be "transmuted and diffused, assuming a fiery nature by being received into the seminal reason (" logos spermatikos ") of the Universe". Since right Reason is the foundation of both humanity and the universe. Stoic theology

3408-446: The correct rational emotions. The Stoics listed the good-feelings under the headings of joy ( chara ), wish ( boulesis ), and caution ( eulabeia ). Thus if something is present which is a genuine good, then the wise person experiences an uplift in the soul—joy ( chara ). The Stoics also subdivided the good-feelings: The Stoics accepted that suicide was permissible for the wise person in circumstances that might prevent them from living

3479-589: The country for intellectual discussion. His Tusculan villa had a gallery called the Academy, which Cicero had built for the purpose of philosophical conversation. It is largely agreed that Cicero wrote the Tusculan Disputations in the summer and/or autumn of 45 BC. Cicero addresses the Disputationes to his friend Brutus , a fellow politician of note, and later assassin of Julius Caesar. In

3550-593: The end of the 4th century BC. Unlike the Epicureans , Zeno chose to teach his philosophy in a public space. Stoicism was originally known as Zenonism. However, this name was soon dropped, likely because the Stoics did not consider their founders to be perfectly wise and to avoid the risk of the philosophy becoming a cult of personality . Zeno's ideas developed from those of the Cynics (brought to him by Crates of Thebes ), whose founding father, Antisthenes , had been

3621-619: The endorsement of the truthfulness of the Stoic worldview and the tenets for one's behavior that follow from it, are central to what it means to be a Stoic. The name Stoicism derives from the Stoa Poikile ( Ancient Greek : ἡ ποικίλη στοά), or "painted porch", a colonnade decorated with mythic and historical battle scenes on the north side of the Agora in Athens where Zeno of Citium and his followers gathered to discuss their ideas, near

SECTION 50

#1732783017818

3692-431: The existing beings they admitted four incorporeals (asomata): time, place, void, and sayable. They were held to be just 'subsisting' while such a status was denied to universals. Thus, they accepted Anaxagoras 's idea (as did Aristotle) that if an object is hot, it is because some part of a universal heat body had entered the object. But, unlike Aristotle, they extended the idea to cover all accidents . Thus, if an object

3763-561: The fate of many historical characters, who, by an earlier death, would have avoided the greatest ills of life. In the second dialogue the same guest announces that pain is an evil. Cicero argues that its sufferings may be overcome, not by the use of Epicurean maxims,—"Short if severe, and light if long," but by fortitude and patience; and he censures those philosophers who have represented pain in too formidable colours, and reproaches those poets who have described their heroes as yielding to its influence. Pain can be neutralized only when moral evil

3834-520: The fifth book Cicero attempts to prove that virtue alone is sufficient for happiness. Here his opinion coincides largely with the Stoic view, more so than in some of his other works such as De Finibus written shortly before. Virtue is entirely sufficient for a happy life under all possible circumstances: in poverty, in exile, in blindness, in deafness, even under torture. Happiness and misery depend on character and are independent of circumstances, and Virtue

3905-470: The first Latin writers on philosophy in Rome. The rhetor 's theme De contemptu mundi , on the contempt of the world, was taken up by Boethius in the troubled closing phase of Late Antiquity and by Bernard of Cluny in the first half of the 12th century. Thomas Jefferson included the "Tusculan questions", along with Cicero's De Officiis , in his list of recommendations to Robert Skipwith of books for

3976-422: The first book Cicero sets up the fiction that they are the record of five days of discussions with his friends written after the recent departure of Brutus. The second book includes the detail that Cicero and his friends spent their mornings in rhetorical exercises and their afternoons in philosophical discussions. The conversations are however very one-sided—the anonymous friend of each dialogue acts merely to supply

4047-510: The future. Thus there are just two states directed at the prospect of good and evil, but subdivided as to whether they are present or future: Numerous subdivisions of the same class were brought under the head of the separate passions: The wise person ( sophos ) is someone who is free from the passions ( apatheia ). Instead the sage experiences good-feelings ( eupatheia ) which are clear-headed. These emotional impulses are not excessive, but nor are they diminished emotions. Instead they are

4118-460: The individual's ethical and moral well-being: " Virtue consists in a will that is in agreement with Nature". This principle also applies to the realm of interpersonal relationships; "to be free from anger, envy, and jealousy", and to accept even slaves as "equals of other men, because all men alike are products of nature". The Stoic ethic espouses a deterministic perspective; in regard to those who lack Stoic virtue, Cleanthes once opined that

4189-468: The opinions which I have stated is true, it must follow, then, that death cannot be an evil; or that it must rather be something desirable; for if either the heart, or the blood, or the brain, is the soul, then certainly the soul, being corporeal, must perish with the rest of the body; if it is air, it will perhaps be dissolved; if it is fire, it will be extinguished; if it is Aristoxenus 's harmony, it will be put out of tune. [...] In all these opinions, there

4260-409: The practice of virtue is enough to achieve eudaimonia : a well-lived life. The Stoics identified the path to achieving it with a life spent practicing the four virtues in everyday life—wisdom, courage, temperance or moderation, and justice—as well as living in accordance with nature. It was founded in the ancient Agora of Athens by Zeno of Citium around 300 BCE. Alongside Aristotle's ethics ,

4331-512: The publication of Problems in Stoicism by A. A. Long in 1971, and also as part of the late 20th-century surge of interest in virtue ethics . Contemporary Stoicism draws from the late 20th- and early 21st-century spike in publications of scholarly works on ancient Stoicism. Beyond that, the current Stoicist movement traces its roots to the work of Albert Ellis , who developed rational emotive behavior therapy , as well as Aaron T. Beck , who

SECTION 60

#1732783017818

4402-456: The root of each passion. Incorrect judgement as to a present good gives rise to delight, while lust is a wrong estimate about the future. Unreal imaginings of evil cause distress about the present, or fear for the future. The ideal Stoic would instead measure things at their real value, and see that the passions are not natural. To be free of the passions is to have a happiness which is self-contained. There would be nothing to fear—for unreason

4473-511: The senses to the mind , where they leave an impression in the imagination ( phantasiai ) (an impression arising from the mind was called a phantasma). The mind has the ability to judge (συγκατάθεσις, synkatathesis )—approve or reject—an impression, enabling it to distinguish a true representation of reality from one that is false. Some impressions can be assented to immediately, but others can achieve only varying degrees of hesitant approval, which can be labeled belief or opinion ( doxa ). It

4544-484: The tenets of ancient Stoicism to the human origin story, environmental education, vegetarianism and the modern challenges of sustainable development, material consumption and consumerism. Seamus Mac Suibhne has described the practices of spiritual exercises as influencing those of reflective practice . Many parallels between Stoic spiritual exercises and modern cognitive behavioral therapy have been identified. According to philosopher Pierre Hadot , philosophy for

4615-652: The topic for the day and to provide smooth transitions within the topic. Cicero heavily relied on Crantor 's "On Grief" ( Latin : De Luctu , Greek : Περὶ Πένθους ) in his Tusculan Disputations . Cicero also made great use of it while writing his celebrated Consolatio on the death of his daughter, Tullia . Several extracts from "On Grief" are preserved in Pseudo-Plutarch 's treatise on Consolation addressed to Apollonius, which has many parallels with Tusculan Disputations . The Tusculanae Disputationes consist of five books: The purpose of Cicero's lectures

4686-445: The view of the Stoics, philosophy is the practice of virtue, and virtue, the highest form of which is utility, is generally speaking, constructed from ideals of logic , monistic physics, and naturalistic ethics. These three ideals constitute virtue which is necessary for 'living a well reasoned life', seeing as they are all parts of a logos, or philosophical discourse, which includes the mind's rational dialogue with itself. Of them,

4757-401: The wicked man is "like a dog tied to a cart, and compelled to go wherever it goes". A Stoic of virtue, by contrast, would amend his will to suit the world and remain, in the words of Epictetus , "sick and yet happy, in peril and yet happy, dying and yet happy, in exile and happy, in disgrace and happy", thus positing a "completely autonomous" individual will and at the same time a universe that

4828-466: The works of Ambrose of Milan , Marcus Minucius Felix , and Tertullian . The modern usage is a "person who represses feelings or endures patiently". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy ' s entry on Stoicism notes, "the sense of the English adjective 'stoical' is not utterly misleading with regard to its philosophical origins". The revival of Stoicism in the 20th century can be traced to

4899-510: The world expects it. People have a false estimate of the causes of grief: deficiencies in wisdom and virtue, which ought to be the objects of the profoundest sorrow, occasioning less regret than is produced by comparatively slight disappointments or losses. To foresee calamities, and be prepared for them, is either to repel their assaults, or to mitigate their severity. After they have occurred, we ought to remember that grieving cannot help us, and that misfortunes are not peculiar to ourselves, but are

4970-561: Was a wide-ranging term indicating an infliction one suffers. The Stoics used the word to discuss many common emotions such as anger, fear and excessive joy. A passion is a disturbing and misleading force in the mind which occurs because of a failure to reason correctly. For the Stoic Chrysippus , the passions are evaluative judgements. A person experiencing such an emotion has incorrectly valued an indifferent thing. A fault of judgement, some false notion of good or evil, lies at

5041-754: Was described in detail in The Philosophy of Cognitive–Behavioural Therapy by Donald Robertson. Several early 20th-century psychotherapists were influenced by Stoicism, most notably the "rational persuasion" school founded by the Swiss neurologist and psychotherapist Paul Dubois , who drew heavily on Stoicism in his clinical work and encouraged his clients to study passages from Seneca the Younger as homework assignments. Similarities of modern Stoicism and third-wave CBT have been suggested as well, and individual reports of its potency in treating depression have been published. There has also been interest in applying

#817182