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You can now enrol for Stoic Week 2014 on our new elearning site Modern Stoicism.  The handbook isn't available yet but you'll be notified when materials are added. #Stoicism #Stoicweek
http://modernstoicism.com/

Announcing Stoic Week 2014.   #Stoicism

Trichotomy of control: a Stoic method to make our lives better 
StuffThatMatters: Philosophy & Self-help  

One of the things I personally believe in life, is the Socratic assumption that good thoughts, belief-systems, values etc can heal our lives. This view has been challenged, for being overly simplistic, by many philosophers, thinkers, scientists and especially psychiatrists (for business reasons, obviously), but I have discovered time and again, that this view works to a great extent. Yes, your views can't change your whole life, or make obstacles magically vanish, but they will definitely have a positive impact on the very way you think, behave and react, if applied wisely and refined correctly. 

This is where stoicism comes into effect. For a long time, I had been searching for a philosophy I could relate to, and I devised a personal philosophical view of the world, which, although accurate (subjectively speaking, anyway), is a pessimistic approach to life. That's why I turned to ancient ethical philosophies of life, and discovered stoicism. 

What is stoicism? 

Since I'm writing this post for both philosophy-nerds like me, and common users as well, I guess it'd be better if I explain stoicism briefly at first. 

Stoicism is one of the great Hellenistic philosophies that developed after the BIG 3 - Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. It was first devised formally by Zeno of Citium, and then modified by a number of other thinkers. It grew immensely popular in the Roman empire, and under the watchful guidance of great Roman Stoics like Seneca, Rufus, Epictetus etc it developed into a reasonable, logical and powerful philosophy of life. Even the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius was a practising Stoic, as evident from his writing Meditations, which survives today as one of the greatest Stoic texts ever. 

The trichotomy of control 

Describing stoicism as a whole would take hundreds, if not thousands, of pages, which is not the objective of this post. But the best part of this great philosophy is that, you can take bits of it and apply them to your life in a practical way, without having to know stoicism by heart. 

In this way, stoicism's teachings are in many ways standalone systems of assumptions. 

At the heart of stoicism, especially the version of it popularized by Musonius Rufus and his greatest student Epictetus, is the dichotomy of control. Epictetus, born a slave, showed great promise in learning, and was allowed by his master Epaphroditus to join Rufus's school. 

The dichotomy of control is simple - it's a logical premise that there are two categories of things (for want of a better term) around us, namely: 

1. Things we can control

and 

2. Things out of our control

However, later Stoics changed it into a trichotomy, adding a third category, an uncertain, grey area between the two extremes. Then the system became: 

1. Things we can control (A)

2. Things we can partly control (B)

and 

3. Things out of our control (C)

Here, the second category includes all the happenings, in which our actions may or may not have a limited impact on the outcomes. The best way to describe this system is through modern exemplification. And so, here they are: 

Example (A): Say, the AC if off, and it's very hot. You can obviously lie down and continue complaining, feeling miserable, accusing God/nature for the extreme heat etc, or you can just get up and turn the AC on (this is a very rough example, I admit). 

Example (B): Say, you want to develop good muscles. You can exercise, follow a healthy lifestyle, plan and maintain a diet, eat less junk food etc, but ultimately it's not certain whether you'll get those six pack abs. However, if you follow a logical sequence of activities, your chances of getting them get better, with time. 

Example (C): You get out for a stroll, and immediately it starts raining heavily. Other than grabbing an umbrella, there's virtually no respite from the rain. 

Almost everything we face can be categorized into this system of trichotomy, and once we do that, stoicism advises us to choose how to react to them. 

The trichotomy of actions 

For everything in A, we should learn to take responsibility. Basically, it is assumed that we are solely responsible for how we think, feel and decide. 

For things in B, we should employ internalization as opposed to externalization of goals. What this means is simple, back to the abs examples. So you decide to workout for a year, and still you might not get as fit as you wanted to be. Here, instead of setting your goal to be getting those abs, it would be much wiser to change it to just getting a bit more fit than I am currently. Then, even if you don't get those abs, you'll feel better, with a sense of achievement. 

Internalization of goals is, in a way, to set goals in such a manner that they are easier to achieve, within our control, and reasonable to think about. Giving it our best is an example of this great stoic advice. 

Now, for things in category C, the stoic suggestion is simple - try your best to avoid the situations (i.e don't allow them to needlessly damage yourself), but accept your limited capacity and don't let them affect your inner tranquillity. In the rain example, we don't have any control over the process, and so it's best to let it be as it is, while trying out best, in a logical manner, to stop it from damaging us physically. Mentally speaking, we shouldn't allow the external disturbance to affect our mind. 

Conclusion 

The standalone teachings of stoicism, if applied correctly, can add great value to our lives. And for opponents of this great line of thinking, I'd say that I exercise a pragmatic view regarding it - we can debate it forever, but it's better to just try and test it, see if it works, and then accept/leave it. 

References 

A guide to good life: the ancient art of Stoic joy (W. Irvine)

Meditations (Marcus Aurelius, also thanks to its free LibreVox recording)

Philosophy for life and other dangerous situations (Jules Evans) 

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#philosophy   #selfhelp   #selfimprovement   #stoicism  

New blog on #stoicism  via +Tim Ferriss 

Stoic Serendipity: My aquaintance to a way of living
by H Rim Shah

The second article of Newstoa India sees our esteemed member, H Rim, discuss his personal journey as a Stoic, and why he had turned to #stoicism as a way of living. The true purpose of #philosophy , as Socrates or any Hellenistic philosopher would tell us, lies in its utility as a tool for sustainable improvement and development of mankind, at the individual, collective and universal levels respectively. And this is what has been exemplified, beautifully so, in the case of H Rim, who now shares his insight on Stoicism with us all.

Not only is this an interesting and refreshing read, in our opinion, but additionally, it serves as an informal introduction to Stoicism for all those, who are interested in the philosophy of Zeno, Seneca, Epictetus and Aurelius.

#selfimprovement #wayoflife  

Stoic principles analogous to Newton's laws of motion

The term 'law' can be defined in many different ways, and in his article, +Anirban Chatterjee takes the liberty of incorporating one such definition into #Stoicism . As seen in the book '22 non-negotiable laws of wellness', 'laws' may refer to certain helpful guidelines, that may contribute some value to our otherwise chaotic lives.

Newton's laws of motion are famous - they tied the earth and heavens together with the knot of mathematical physics. But although restricted to the abode of interactions between forces and bodies, they may be qualitatively applied to the scenarios of our lives. And this is what has been attempted here.

This is the first of the three articles intended, by Anirban, and more will follow.

http://goo.gl/J78qL2

#selfhelp #philosophy

Register to join our live text-message chat on Google+ Hangouts this Sunday at 20:00 GMT. #Stoicism   #Stoicweek  

🔥 Quick update on modernstoicism.com - now have 50+ people enrolled on new course and about 500 registered users on website. #Stoicism

A brilliant selection of writings from the most important Stoic sources. One of the most essential books on Stoicism you can get your hands on. Includes a very helpful glossary of terms in Stoicism 

#stoicism 

"Now I will tell you how you may know that you are not wise. The wise person is filled with joy, cheerful and calm, unalarmed; he lives on equal terms with gods. Now look at yourself. If you are never downcast; if your mind is not bothered by any hopes concerning the future; if your mental state is even and consistent night and day, upright and content with itself, then you have indeed attained the fullness of the human good. But if you seek pleasure in every direction and of every kind, then be aware that you are as far removed from wisdom as you are from joy. Joy is your aim, but you are off course: you think that you will get there amid riches and accolades; in other words, you seek joy in the midst of anxiety! You go after those things on grounds that they will bestow happiness and pleasure, but in reality they are causes of pain"

- Seneca, Letters 59.14

#stoicism #wisdom

You can now download the Stoic Week 2015 Handbook from the Stoicism Today blog site hosted by the University of Exeter. #Stoicweek #Stoicism 

If you're planning on taking part in Stoic Week 2014, you can now enrol... #Stoicism 

Stoic Week 2015.   #Stoicism   #Stoicweek  

Stoic Week 2014 Handbook, cover design by Rocio De Torres #Stoicism  

Stoicism in The Walking Dead

AMC's most famous show, The Walking Dead, has been running for 5 continuous seasons now, and there's a reason behind it being the most popular item on the table. In my personal exploration of the topic, I believe the subtly presented Stoic concepts in the series, sometimes in the form of way-too-ideal characters, and sometimes through the general setting of the show, form part of that reason.

In this article, Newstoa member Anirban Chatterjee discusses his personal take on the fusion between the show (his favourite) and the philosophy of Stoicism. This is our effort to use pop culture in order to make #Stoicism easily understandable to the general non-stoics. But the dedicated Stoic may find it interesting as well.

http://goo.gl/rCZTqA

#philosophy #selfhelp #thewalkingdead

The first article on #Stoicism , the great Hellenistic #philosophy of self-help and self-improvement, is live on our new blog, Newstoa India. In here, +Anirban Chatterjee gives us an simple introduction to Stoicism and why it matters in our lives.

As a part of the Introductory posts initiative, these articles are aimed to help newcomers to get themselves familiarized with Stoicism.

🔥 We're very (very!) close to exceeding the 2,400 participants we had last year, in Stoic Week 2013.  Please share the news about Stoic Week and encourage your friends to enrol.  #Stoicism #Stoicweek http://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/stoicismtoday/2014/10/20/stoic-week-2014-everything-you-need-to-know/

The new e-learning course (and research study) will be four-weeks long and called "Stoic Mindfulness and Resilience Training".  We already have 300 people registered on the website but please feel free to register now if you're thinking of taking part - the more participants the better. #Stoicism 

Cicero is one of the most important sources to Stoicism and, although he wasn't a Stoic himself, he held a very favorable view of Stoicism. To a large extent he shaped Roman Stoicism singlehandedly - and he is great fun to read. Even so, only few of his works are avaible in solid modern editions in English. Luckily, Margaret Graver - who have also recently done the first complete translation of Seneca's letters into English - has given us this great edition of some of the most important chapters Cicero wrote on the Stoic theory of emotions

#stoicism #recommendations #resources