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by bitexploder
3131 days ago
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Agreed. The Stoics allowed themselves to have emotions. It is a common misconception that stoicism is about deadening feelings and reactions to the world. Stoics acknowledge and even embrace our emotions, but what stoics aim for after experiencing emotions and gut reactions is some of the most interesting parts of stoicism for modern readers. I always direct people to http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/goldsay.html for a taste of Stoicism. It is still tricky because what most Stoics thought of as "God" and what a modern reader would interpret as (the Christian) God are pretty different, but it is still easy reading. Other than that caveat it is pretty easy to understand. As a sort of random aside, some of the most memorable sections of Epictetus for me are when he would referee to a pupil or discussion partner as a "slave". It always gave me a good chuckle. "My nose is running." "Why do you have hands, you slave?" e.g. quit complaining and wipe your nose. The color of comments like that really gives a feel for when the stoics think someone is being dense or wasting their mind. Some of the time now, when I am feeling particularly sorry for my self, Epictetus will pop up in my mind and call me a slave for complaining and it really helps me get over whatever random thing I was fixated on. |
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In terms of modern Stoic writing, I find Ryan Holiday's "The Ego is The Enemy" and "The Obstacle is the Way" (as well as his "Daily Stoic", although that's more of a daily devotional) to be very enjoyable and help to reframe the often hard-to-read writings of Aurelius, Seneca and Epictetus into actionable advice.