How to Be a Stoic
In the tradition of How to Live and How Proust Can Change Your Life, a philosopher asks how ancient Stoicism can help us flourish today Whenever we worry about what to eat, how to love, or simply how to be happy, we are worrying about how to lead a good life. No goal is more elusive. In How to Be a Stoic, philosopher Massimo Pigliucci offers Stoicism, the ancient philosophy that inspired the great emperor Marcus Aurelius, as the best way to attain it. Stoicism is a pragmatic philosophy that focuses our attention on what is possible and gives us perspective on what is unimportant. By understanding Stoicism, we can learn to answer crucial questions: Should we get married or divorced? How should we handle our money in a world nearly destroyed by a financial crisis? How can we survive great personal tragedy? Whoever we are, Stoicism has something for us--and How to Be a Stoic is the essential guide.Extracted Annotations (11/19/2022, 4:40:40 AM)
"One of the first lessons from Stoicism, then, is to focus our attention and efforts where we have the most power and then let the universe run as it will. This will save us both a lot of energy and a lot of worry." (Pigliucci 2017:29)
"your confidence lies in knowing that you did whatever was in your power to do, because that, and only that, is under your control. The universe doesn't bow to your wishes, it does what it does;" (Pigliucci 2017:31)
"Epictetus tells us that regret is a waste of our emotional energy. We cannot change the past—it is outside of our control. We can, and should, learn from it, but the only situations we can do something about are those happening here and now. The right attitude is to derive comfort from the knowledge that you did your best" (Pigliucci 2017:32)
"Whether you succeed or not, your level headed acceptance of the outcome will be best." (Pigliucci 2017:32)
"they were wise enough to make the distinction between their internal goals, over which they had control, and the external outcome, which they could influence but not control." (Pigliucci 2017:32)
"And yet this is precisely the power of Stoicism: the internalization of the basic truth that we can control our behaviors but not their outcomes—let alone" (Pigliucci 2017:32)
"the outcomes of other people's behaviors—leads to the calm acceptance of whatever happens, secure in the knowledge that we have done our best given the circumstances." (Pigliucci 2017:33)
"What is important is the basic idea of the dichotomy of control and its implications. If we take this notion seriously, it turns out that most things are not really under our control, from small and insignificant matters to really important ones. The logical consequence of this realization—which is also endorsed by Buddhism and other philosophical and religious traditions—should be to practice non-attachment to things and people." (Pigliucci 2017:33)
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