Stoic Meditations

The complex patterns drawn by the planets in the sky seem to indicate the existence of a higher intelligence. But of course modern physics has other ideas. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Cicero has one of his Stoic characters very explicitly state a notion about the nature of the cosmos that does not hold up to modern philosophical and scientific scrutiny. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Cicero summarizes a beautiful argument by the Stoics to the effect that the world itself is wise. Unfortunately, the argument is based on unsound premises, and its conclusion is incoherent. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Zeno claimed that life can only come from life, and reason from reason, so he concluded that the universe was alive and endowed with reason. It's a beautiful idea, but one that has not withstood the test of modern science. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Zeno of Citium puts forth a compact argument to conclude that the universe as a whole, as distinct from individual beings within the cosmos, reasons. But the argument is based on a fallacious premise. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Chrysippus, the third head of the Stoa, constructs an argument for the existence of god that is unsound, that is, based on a faulty premise. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Cleanthes, the second head of the Stoa, advances four bad arguments for the existence of the gods. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

We need to demystify the Stoics somewhat. We moderns should value and respect ancient wisdom, but not to the point of mindless worship. This episodes provides two pertinent examples. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

The ancient Stoics believed in divination. They were obviously mistaken about it. And yet the general principle they adopted was very much akin to the one underlying modern science. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

We begin the study of book II of Cicero's On the Nature of the Gods, and we see that the Stoics begin with deploying what is nowadays known as an argument from design. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Do you look at other people’s pimples while yon yourselves are covered with countless ulcers? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

You are rendered over-proud by a fine house, as though it could never be burned, and your heads are turned by riches as though Fortune has not sufficient strength to swallow them up. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

I shall make whatever befalls me become a good thing, but I prefer that what befalls me should be comfortable and pleasant and unlikely to cause me annoyance. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

A Stoic finds herself at ease both in a fancy house where food is served on silver plates and under the bridge sharing the fare with beggars. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Riches, I say, are not a good thing; for if they were, they would make people good: now since that which is found even among bad people cannot be termed good, I do not allow them to be called so. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Nature bids me do good to mankind. Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a benefit. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

He who believes giving to be an easy matter, is mistaken: it offers very great difficulties, if we bestow our bounty rationally, and do not scatter it impulsively and at random. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

The philosopher may own wealth, but will not own wealth that has been torn from another, or which is stained with another’s blood: her must be obtained without wronging anyone, and without it being won by base means. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Do not, then, make any mistake: riches belong to the class of desirable things. But if my riches leave me, they will carry away with them nothing except themselves. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support

Health, for Aristotle, is a necessary requirement for a eudaimonic life. For the Stoics, it is preferred, other things being equal, but a life worth living is within grasp of everyone, regardless of their specific condition. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/stoicmeditations/support