The varieties of bad Stoicism

Stoicism is very popular these days. Perhaps a bit too much.

[Epictetus is invited to visit the future, cartoon by Corey Mohler, reproduced with permission.]

In The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde has the character of Lord Henry say to Dorian that “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.” Then again, Henry was a cynical hedonist, so we should probably take his advice with a fairly large grain of salt.

It certainly does not apply to Stoicism, which these days is often being talked about in ways that distort the philosophy and undermine its usefulness. The thought came back to my mind last week, when I saw a cartoon by Corey Mohler, the author of the brilliant Existential Comics. Comic strips are often considered low brow and certainly beneath the attention of serious students of philosophy. And yet, I think I could teach an entire course on the subject using only Corey’s cartoons. Indeed, I just might, one of these days.

Corey’s cartoon n. 484 begins with the two panels reproduced (with permission) above: some 21st century guy reaches out to the second century Stoic philosopher Epictetus and tells him that his philosophy has become very popular in the future. Would he want to see it? The sage from Hierapolis is not surprised, responding that “I always knew Stoic virtue is the way to live.”

Epictetus actually rarely talked about virtue, a concept that was more frequently deployed by earlier Stoics, from the founder of the sect, Zeno of Citium, to Epictetus’ near contemporary, Seneca. Rather, his philosophy focused on five basic ideas (discussed in more details here):

I. The fundamental rule of life: the notion that some things are up to us and others are not, and that a good life is the result of focusing on the first class while cultivating an attitude of acceptance and equanimity toward the second class.

II. Opinions are not facts: facts are objective, mind-independent features of the world, while opinions are the result of human judgments. We would do well to keep this distinction in mind because it is our opinions, not the facts themselves, that so often upset us.

III. There are three areas (so-called disciplines) in which we need to train ourselves in order to live an ethical life: (a) re-orienting our priorities toward what is truly good and away from what is truly bad (as opposed to what society tells us is good or bad); (b) acting justly toward our fellow human beings; (c) refining our judgments so that they are correct as frequently as possible.

IV. We should embrace an ethos of cosmopolitanism, according to which other human beings are like brothers and sisters.

V. We need to pay attention to our thoughts and actions, because things are generally not improved by not paying attention.

Keep the list above in mind because it will allow us to appreciate why Corey’s cartoon is very much on target in its criticism of much contemporary Stoicism.

Three varieties of bad Stoicism, cartoon by Corey Mohler, reproduced with permission.

The next three panels in the cartoon (above) identify three of the more widespread varieties of bad Stoicism out there: using the philosophy to advance one’s career, succeed in having sex, and make money. But what’s wrong with these goals, exactly?