In letters from a stoic 22, Lucilius seems to be holding on his office as a procurator. In letter 19 Seneca has advised him to retire from office and no longer chase other pursuits. In this letter the wise old man gave Lucilius a blueprint on how to completely withdraw himself away from the highly colored occupation. Lucilius and Seneca are both high profiled men in Ancient Rome. To be sure,…
In letters from a stoic 21, Lucilius seems to be wanting to depart his job. It’s known that Lucilius was a procurator in Rome. What was not clear is that if he was departing his job for retirement, which Seneca advised him on letter 19, or if he was trying to get another job. Seneca told Lucilius that if he was trying to find an “ideal state of calm”…
Stoicism (capital S) refers to the ancient school of philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens, Greece. The philosophy provides a framework of thoughts that gives practicing stoics resiliency during challenging situations. On the other hand, stoicism (small s) as defined by Oxford English Dictionary refers to the endurance of pain or hardships without the display of feeling and without complaint. In other words, the former refers to…
Rationality simply means to base everything – judgment, perception, action, etc. – on reason. The Stoics believe that the “logos” exist in our reason and therefore regard it as some divine power. It’s the only thing we can control and if we put our energy into it rather than things that outside ourselves, we will live a much better life. They constantly remind us to see things and events for what they truly are and…
The dichotomy of control which is probably the most popular practice among the stoics stems from a deep belief that “logos” operates in sort of two categories: individuals and cosmos (universe). In individuals, it exists in our faculty of reason. “Logos” is responsible for the order and coherence with which it operates and stoics teachings said that if we use reason, our rationality, we will conduct ourselves in harmony in such that in a way…