Stoic Meditations

Cicero gives a nice rundown of the Stoic theory of emotions, which holds up well according to modern cognitive science. Emotions have cognitive components, so we can challenge them when they are not good for us. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

If our concerns are in agreement with reason, they are healthy; but fear is not in agreement with reason, and it is therefore unhealthy. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Where this strong desire is consistent and founded on prudence, it is by the Stoics called volition. And this they define it thus: volition is a reasonable desire. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Zeno’s definition, then, is this: “A perturbation” (which he calls “pathos”) “is a commotion of the mind repugnant to reason, and against nature.” --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

The sage will achieve a state of apatheia, meaning lack of disturbance from unhealthy emotions like fear, anger, and hatred. But she will also experience healthy emotions, like love, joy, and a sense of justice. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Cicero very clearly and succinctly explains the difference among five Hellenistic takes on grief, including two Stoic ones, one by Cleanthes (the second head of the Stoa) and one by Chrysippus (the third head). --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Grief arises from an opinion of some present evil, which includes this belief, that it is incumbent on us to grieve. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Most people appear to be unaware what contradictions these things are full of. They commend those who die calmly, but they blame those who can bear the loss of another with the same calmness. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Cicero gives an example of people suddenly setting grief aside because they are absorbed in an urgent task. He infers that, therefore, grief is a matter of opinion, not of nature. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

You see, the evil is in opinion, not in nature. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

[We can point] out that nothing has happened but what is common to human nature; [which] does not only inform us what human nature is, but implies that all things are tolerable which others have borne and are bearing. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Cicero presents three major objections to Epicureanism, which he argues is a fundamentally incoherent philosophy. See if you agree with his analysis. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

I should agree with Epicurus that we ought to be called off from grief to contemplate good things, if we could only agree upon what was good. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Cicero says that if one is distraught she should read Socrates rather than listen to music. I disagree. Music may be soothing in the long run. Socrates is the long term cure. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

There are two ways to think about potential future setbacks: emotionally, and rationally. The first approach only causes perpetual distress. The second one prepares our mind to deal with what may be coming. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Cicero tells us that Anaxagoras, the Presocratic philosopher, was ready to accept the death of his son, because he had always known he was a mortal. This isn't lack of care, it's mental preparedness. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Grief, Cicero tells us, is a highly destructive emotion. While we shouldn't go around telling others not to grieve, we ourselves should take care to react differently to the loss of a loved one. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Cicero gives us a classification of disturbances of the mind: when we think that something is good (now or in the future) but it actually isn't. And when we think that something is bad (now or in the future) but it actually isn't. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Cicero makes an argument that the ideal Stoic, the sage, should feel neither envy nor pity. He was spectacularly wrong, and directly contradicted by Marcus Aurelius. Let's see why. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

The word envy comes from Latin for "looking too closely into other people's fortune." Let us see why this is most definitely not a thing that a Stoic should indulge in. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support