Stoicism

Philosophy is not much of a big appeal in my life. As most of you are probably aware, aside from the English language, it is the field of paleontology (and particularly dinosaurology) which entrances me the most and takes up a great portion of my life – even though gaining knowledge about this subject has inevitably philosophical consequences, as evident in the grand dinosaurian volume Why Dinosaurs Matter by Kenneth Lacovara. However, recently (and possibly even before that) I discovered an amazing TED-Ed video explaining a school of philosophy called Stoicism, and I honestly was awestruck by the brilliance of this framework of thinking.

My dearest online dictionary, Macmillan Dictionary defines "stoic" as "someone who accepts things without complaining". While this covers part of the philosophy, Stoicism is actually more than that. As you can learn from the animated video, the stoics hold four (4) cardinal values: wisdom, temperance, justice, and courage. Nevertheless, it is true that the most striking point, at least to me, is the practice of endurance and resilience, which is attained by a genuine understanding of how the universe works. The narrative goes like this: We live in a super complex world system and, regardless of our wishes and hopes, there are events that go as we want and those that run off the course, which naturally would give people displeasure and disappointment. While we do have control over some events in our life, there are certainly others that happen entirely independently of our own actions. And it is these controllable events that have to be our focus and deserve our attention – otherwise, our life will be overwhelmed by negativity, shattering emotions, and toxic experiences that drag us backwards and even fell us into abysmal gloom. This tenet is in alignment with what the philosopher Epictetus wrote: "We suffer not from the events in our lives, but from our judgement about them!"

One excellent example comes from another TED video by Massimo Pigliucci, the same philosopher who gives us the lesson in the short, but insightful animation. Pigliucci takes an instance from a major element in most humans' lives: romantic relationships. The success of a relationship is determined by both the parties involved in it. A man can love his girlfriend in the most sincere and kindest way, but no matter how magnificent his love is, he literally cannot make her respond in kind since her very reactions are not under his control – they are up to his girlfriend. Stoicism teaches us to focus on being the best version of ourselves, i.e. the most lovable person for our partner, because it is what is actually under our control.

This principle can extend to and be applied in many aspects of our life: participation in competitions, job promotions (also mentioned in the TEDx video), raising children, and so on and so forth. Stoicism is a very relatable philosophy indeed and I love the fact that being a stoic means to perceive the world as it is, without sugarcoating the reality or distorting views of what really happens.

So, what do you think of Stoicism? Are you a stoic? Leave your comments below!