What Is Stoicism? 5 Things You Need To Know About This Ancient Greek & Roman Philosophy

Punch “What is Stoicism” into Google and the answers returned will vary widely. Most will be shallow, some less so, but nearly all of them incomplete. This isn’t always the fault of those attempting to answer the question — although there’s plenty of ignorance masquerading as confidence out there — it’s more due to the fact that answering this question, in full, is nigh impossible to do in a blog post intended for at-your-finger-tips access and in-a-minute consumption. We live in the “I Wiki’d it!” era and Stoicism isn’t something you come to understand by Wiki-ing or reading a 1200 word blog post written by a random internet human.

And this random internet human knows better than to try and succeed where so many others have failed. So, instead of trying to give you the full monty of Stoicism, here are 5 things you need to know about the Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy of Stoicism. I hope they serve to expand whatever understanding you currently have of Stoicism.

1. Stoicism = Virtue Ethics

The ancient Stoics believed that the only good thing in all of the Universe was Virtue. Therefore the “aim” of any Stoic practice is to develop towards a virtuous character. There is no other aim of Stoicism. Resilience, for example, is not the aim, it’s a side effect of a character which is closing the distance on Virtue. 

2. Indifferents NOT Indifference

Since the aim of Stoicism is a virtuous character, everything which does not impact our ability to develop a virtuous character (whether in a beneficial or detrimental way) is an indifferent. Your wealth (or poverty) is an indifferent. Your job (or lack of one) is an indifferent. Your wealth and job are indifferents. Indifferents sounds exactly like indifference, and this is why so many people think the Stoics advise us to be indifferent to things instead of what they actually advise: that we frame everything which cannot impact our ability to develop a virtuous character as being indifferent in its power over us. 

3. Emotions are Examined Carefully

The Ancient Stoics tell us that proto-emotions are those which arise not by our choice but by our animal nature. If lighting struck near by to you, and you jumped out of fear, the Stoics would not say that there was a way to avoid your initial feelings of fear, or that you were “unStoic” for having been frightened. Instead, the Stoics tell us that, immediately following a proto-emotion, our rational faculties kick in and we begin making judgements about the event/stimulus which elicited the proto-emotional response in the first place.

It is during this moment that we are to gain control over our chaotic mind, through the use of our rational faculties, so that we can make accurate judgements and decisions about what ongoing emotions are appropriate to have. 

Lighting stuck, we were scared. Are we alive? Are we safe? Can we get under shelter? What peril might we be in currently? Any? Is there any reason to continue to be scared? If we answer these questions rationally we will “assent” to an impression of reality that is “appropriate” based on reason. If we answer them irrationally, or if we choose not to deploy our rational faculties actively, we risk assenting to an impression of reality that is inappropriate or false. 

Assent to too many false impressions and, as our impressions form our opinions and ideas, we’ll find ourselves with an understanding of the world that is far more inaccurate than it is accurate. 

One cannot develop a virtuous character if one has an inappropriate/inaccurate view of reality.

4. Fate Is A Thing

The Ancient Stoics believed that existence, on a cosmic scale, is cyclical. There’s a big kaboom, then things come into being, stay that way for a very long time, and, eventually, there’s a great cosmic fire and everything burns down to nothing before the whole cycle starts over.

Everything from that great kaboom is fated in that a trajectory is set and, unless interrupted, that trajectory can be calculated precisely from beginning to end and there’s nothing anyone can do to change it.

But humans occupy a strange role in the cosmos as the only beings who seem to have the sort of consciousness we have. When the timeline of fate encounters a human, that human, with its rational faculties, interrupts things and, based on that human’s choices, can (and always does) shape what will happen next.

Imagine someone has thrown you a ball. You have no control over that ball while it is in their air, but you do have control over your decision to catch the ball. Let’s say you decide to catch it. That decision was yours to make, but everything that happens outside your body as you attempt to physically catch that ball isn’t under your control. Your arm could fail, your heart could explode, your brain could have an aneurism, the ball could pop, a swarm of furious bees could attack you, et cetera. You only have “free will” over your rational faculties.

In this way the Stoics suggest, relative to human existence and experience, that fate happens through us and not to us. We shape fate, but we don’t control it. 

5. Context and Role Ethics

Stoicism isn’t practiced in any one way. Instead, it is highly contextual. The philosophy doesn’t have edicts or laws, per se, so much as it has guidelines about what does or doesn’t constitute behavior in alignment with the aim of developing Virtue. Stoics are constantly asking themselves, “What does this reflect about my character?”

True also is the fact that, in Stoicism, we reason towards appropriate actions by understanding what our roles and responsibilities are within a society. 

Should you join the military in time of war? That depends. Do you feel you’d make a good soldier? Let’s imagine you feel you would. But what if you’re 50-years-old and a fantastic English teacher at your local high school? Should you leave that position to become a soldier? If you leave, can you be replaced with an equally good teacher? What if you can’t be? What if you leaving to protect your country negatively impacts the future educations and life prospects of 300 students? Will you be a more useful human as a soldier than as a teacher?

But what if you’re not a teacher? What if you’re 22-years-old and you work at McDonalds? If you left to defend your country could you be replaced at your job? Could you be a more useful human as a soldier than as a cashier?

What if you’ve got that same McDonald’s scenario but your father has Alzheimers and you’re his only caregiver? Should you enlist in that scenario?

There’s no single way to be a Stoic because there’s no single subjective reality — everyone’s situations are different. 

So, What Is Stoicism? 

If I were to describe Stoicism in a single sentence, I would way the following:

Stoicism is an Ancient Greek & Roman philosophy focused on the development of a virtuous character through the living of a well-reasoned and appropriately involved life.

It’s nothing less than that, but one could go far deeper if so inclined.

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