What is Stoicism and What are the Core Principles?

I guess you’ve heard of the word stoicism but do not understand what it means, and this is why you clicked on this post?

Stoicism is an ancient philosophy that flourished in the Greek and Roman antiquity. It was one of the five major philosophical schools in classical Greek and Rome; Platonist, Aristotelian, Stoic, Epicurean, and Skeptic. It teaches us that we can only influence what we have control off, maximize our positive emotions and reduce our negative emotions. It provides a framework to live the best possible life on any day, any situation of our lives.

Stoic philosophy was practiced by a wide range of people in the ancient period from Slaves to Emperors. Notable stoics like Epictetus, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius from that period are renowned for there practical use of the stoicism. There is obviously a lot to unpack here and how stoicism can help improve your daily life.

The topic of Stoicism is a lot wider and deeper than just the basic definition. It covers the view of a way to live and think and is a philosophy many entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley use to reduce stress and improve decision making. I found a lot more interesting facts and have adopted some of these principles myself. I would like to share with you what I found and applied to myself.

Interesting Stoic Historical Facts

Stoicism started in early 3rd Century BC in Athens by Zero of Citium, a Hellenistic thinker. The name comes from the Stoa Poikile, the colonnade in Athens where Zeno and his students gathered for their discussions.
It teaches us to remind ourselves of how unpredictable the world can be, how brief our life is and how to stay strong and control our lives. Stoics focuses on self-improvement but not a self-centered philosophy. The idea is only people who have to cultivate virtue and self-control in themselves can bring positive change in others.

Lucius Annaeu Seneca through a letter one to his friend Lucillus sums up the importance of time in his letter.

Letter 1: On Saving Time “hold every hour in your grasp.”Lay hold of today’s task and you will not need to depend on so much on tomorrow.”

Stoic Principles

Stoicism is focused on self-improvement but not a self-centered philosophy. The idea is only people who have to cultivate virtue and self-control in themselves can bring positive change in others.

Stoic Agenda and its similarities with the Serenity Pray

The stoic agenda is often being compared to the Serenity Prayer as it contains similar principles

William R Connolly defines the stoic agenda as…to avoid unhappiness, frustration, and disappointment, we, therefore, need to do two things:
1. Control those things that are within our power (namely our beliefs, judgments, desires, and attitudes) and
2. Be indifferent or apathetic to those things which are not in our power (namely, things external to us).

“God grant me the serenity To accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference”. (Alcoholics Anonymous)

Stoic Beliefs and Virtues

“we suffer not from the events in our lives, but from our judgment about them! “
–Epictetus

The Three Topics of Stoicism

Logic – a way to determine if your perceptions of the world is correct
Physics – a structure to understand the natural world as both active and passive
Ethics – the study of how to live one’s life

The Cardinal Virtues of Stoicism

Prudence/Practical Wisdom

Prudence is the most general of the Stoic Virtues and refers to the ability to grasp the knowledge of what is good, what is bad and what is indifferent. Understand what are the most important things in life or being able to rationally understand the value of things. It means firmly grasping the nature of the good: understanding that virtue or wisdom itself is the only true good, and living accordingly.

This virtue of Prudence is often linked with the topic of Stoic Logic, which encompassed epistemology and psychology.

Justice/Morality

The modern definition of justice is too narrow from a stoic’s perspective. The Stoics view of justice is broader than just the legal aspect but includes what would be moral in dealings with others. A way to think about this is this virtue includes the concepts of righteousness, kindness, and fairness. Something legal doesn’t necessarily have to be fair or righteous.

The virtue of Justice/Morality is often linked with the Stoic topic of Ethics, including politics

Temperance/Moderation

This virtue relates to self-discipline/self-control but also to self-awareness or being self-possessed. It can also be linked to the concept of “mindfulness”. It can also be loosely related to the Christian idea of moral conscience. Stoics defined moderation mainly as good self-discipline. The virtue of Temperance/Moderation has been linked to the topics of the Stoic Physics.

Fortitude/Courage

This virtue is simpler and clearly means courage and extends to include endurance of pain and discomfort. It’s the opposite of “cowardice”. It appears to form a pair with the virtue of moderation.

Before we get to the application, I would like to share how Tim Ferris the author of the Four Hour Work Week summarised Stoicism and its practical use. Tim describes Stoicism as “a fantastic operating system thriving in a high-stress environment. So, what does it mean? it is a framework for better decisions and making yourself less reactive“.

Famous Stoic Quotes

“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality” ― Lucius Annaeus Seneca
“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” ― Marcus Aurelius ,Meditations
“Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.” ― Epicurus

How can we apply Stoicism to our daily lives?

Happiness and judgment should be based on behavior, rather than words. We don’t control external events and can only rely on ourselves and our responses. So why is Stoicism important in today’s world?

1. Focus on the sphere of actions (things you can control). This is divided between things you can control and not control. Stoicism focuses on the energy on the former (the things you can control). Instead of waster energy on the things, you can’t control focus on your energy on the things you can control. An example is we may not be able to control things miles away or how other people think about us. We can control what we think and our own actions. It also doesn’t mean we do not act and become passive. The way I intrepid this is to choose our battles and focus on things we can impact. Don’t waste your energy on things you cannot control.

Application: I am someone who enjoys watching the news, but this can be quiet draining as a lot of news is negative. Whether about the wars in the middle east of natural disasters in other parts of the world. Since adopting concepts from Stoicism, I tend to reduce my consumption in the news. I acknowledge the fact that I cannot impact matters not related to me thousands of miles away. I rather focus on things I am immediately affected by like changing my eating habits.

2. Train to be less prone to overreaction.
This is the practice where you do not need to care about how other people see you. You can wear out of fashion T-shirt or some scruffy clothing and not care about how others see you. This is training for you to become bulletproof and ignore superficial things that affect other people. It builds your tolerance and resilience to other people’s opinions.

Application: I wear the same type of business shirt every day to work. I don’t mind if others think this is plain and not fashionable. It doesn’t bother me what other people think. I do not try to keep up with the Jones. I am not concern about having the latest gadgets. For example, I use the default earphone from my smartphone and do not use any fancy wireless earphones. As long as it’s practical I do not worry about what everyone else thinks.

3. Practice living frugality

On occasion live off the bare basics like beans and rice and sleep on the floor. In effect practicing, poverty will condition you to be reliant on the fear of poverty. My take on this is by experiencing the worse of conditions it will train my resilence and fear from mistakes.

Application: I ensure I have a meal once a week that only contains sweet potatoes and spinach. This is a very basic and cheap meal. At worse, I can spend a few dollars a day and survive. I also occasionally have bean and rice for lunch rather than go out to a fancy restaurant.

Final Thoughts…

I will end the post with one of my favorite quotes from Seneca.

From Letter 13 Seneca to Lucillius – “Setting aside a certain number of days during the cheapest of fares wearing the cheapest dress. Asking yourself is the situation I worse fear??

I found the philosophy from Stoicism has greatly improved my productivity, decision making, prioritizing and putting things in perspective. I find listening to a Letter from Seneca every day is a great way to absorb these concepts in bite-size pieces.

The morning yogi