Practice like a Stoic: 39, Keep basic Stoic concepts always at hand

Be very careful how you die your thoughts

Bolinus brandaris, the mollusk from which the Greco-Romans extracted their purple die. Image from Wikimedia, CC license.

[This series of posts is based on A Handbook for New Stoics—How to Thrive in a World out of Your Control, co-authored by yours truly and Greg Lopez. It is a collection of 52 exercises, which we propose reader try out one per week during a whole year, to actually live like a Stoic. In Europe/UK the book is published by Rider under the title Live Like A Stoic.Below is this week’s prompt and a brief explanation of the pertinent philosophical background. Check the book for details on how to practice the exercise, download the exercise forms from The Experiment’s website, and comment below on how things are going. Greg and/or I will try our best to help out! This week’s exercise is found at pp. 232-234 of the paperback edition.]

“The wise man, indeed, overcomes Fortune by his virtue, but many who profess wisdom are sometimes frightened by the most unsubstantial threats. And at this stage it is a mistake on our part to make the same demands upon the wise man and upon the learner. I still exhort myself to do that which I recommend; but my exhortations are not yet followed. And even if this were the case, I should not have these principles so ready for practice, or so well trained, that they would rush to my assistance in every crisis. Just as wool takes up certain colors at once, while there are others which it will not absorb unless it is soaked and steeped in them many times, so other systems of doctrine can be immediately applied by men’s minds after once being accepted; but this system of which I speak, unless it has gone deep and has sunk in for a long time, and has not merely colored but thoroughly permeated the soul, does not fulfil any of its promises. The matter can be imparted quickly and in very few words: ‘Virtue is the only good; at any rate there is no good without virtue, and virtue itself is situated in our nobler part, that is, the rational part.’ And what will this virtue be? A true and never-swerving judgment. For therefrom will spring all mental impulses, and by its agency every external appearance that stirs our impulses will be clarified. It will be in keeping with this judgment to judge all things that have been colored by virtue as goods, and as equal goods.” (Seneca, Letters to Lucilius, 71.30–33)

It’s comforting to notice Seneca’s acknowledgment that he is an imperfect practitioner of Stoicism. He admits that behaving according to his own foundational principles still doesn’t come automatically to him. He is not yet wise, but rather a student of wisdom, just like the rest of us. Indeed, none of the ancient Stoics professed to be sages, and downright criticized people who did (such as Epicurus, the founder of one of the rival schools).

Seneca then gives a powerful analogy between the varying ways to dye cloth a certain color and similarly “dyeing” our “soul” by way of our thoughts. Some colors are easily absorbed by the cloth and others take time to steep. The notion is that for those colors (or ideas) that take more time, the more we train ourselves to think in that way, or conversely, to stay away from a certain kind of thinking, the easier it becomes for us to think and behave virtuously. There is modern empirical evidence that this approach does, in fact, work, as the entire practice of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is based upon it. A study of 106 meta-analyses (studies comparing the results of many individual studies) by Stefan G. Hofmann and colleagues found that CBT was effective on anxiety disorders, somatoform disorders, bulimia, anger control problems, and general stress.

Importantly, Seneca goes on to concisely tell us which thoughts we should understand and internalize to thoroughly permeate our soul. He adds that “virtue is the only true good; at any rate there is no good without virtue.” It is virtue that directs our actions and makes them good. What people normally think of as “goods,” such as money, can actually be used well or poorly, and the thing itself (in this case, money) isn’t going to tell you how to use it. Conversely, lack of virtue—that is, vice—does the opposite, turning externals into bad things. In the end, says Seneca, virtue is the ability to arrive at true judgments; we can train ourselves to improve our capacity to do so. According to the Stoics, true judgments can clarify every external appearance (“impression,” in Stoic terminology) from which impulses spring (which “stirs our impulses,” as Seneca says). This may look familiar to you, as it’s another example of the application of Stoic psychological theory that you encountered last week.