Friday, February 19, 2016

Blog Post One: The Philosopher King to the Rationalist, and Your Life

In today’s day and age, is it possible to lead a productive life guided by the principles of Stoicism? “Faith in a rationally ordered universe and our intimate relation to the Logos are central aspects of Stoicism. If the universe is divinely ordered, then there is a plan. Things happen to us for a reason—a divinely ordained reason.” (Section 7-7). The idea of Stoicism is, in its simplest form, the idea that while we may not be able to control what happens, we do have some type of influence in the path our life takes. As Epictetus so eloquently said, “Henceforth, my mind is the material I have to work on, as the carpenter has his timber and the shoemaker his leather: my business is to deal with my impressions aright. My wretched body is nothing to me, its parts are nothing to me.” (Section 7-8). What I took him to mean here is that we can only control and have influence over the subjective world around us, not the objective.

With this basic explanation, one could reason that living a life according to the philosophy of Stoicism would be fairly easy for most. The textbook gives some really great examples on how Stoicism relates to our everyday lives. Another example of how Stoicism applies to everyday life can be found in the following scenario:

A patient is hospitalized with a serious infection during the time frame of his family reunion. The patient has no choice in whether or not he came down with the infection. The fact of the matter is he got it. He does however have influence on how he perceives his hospital stay and how he treats the people around him. This patient, in line with the Stoicism philosophy, believes that there is a reason behind him coming down with this infection, even though he may not understand what that reasoning is. He would also choose to have a positive outlook on his hospital stay in order to make his stay as pleasant as possible and reduce feelings of anxiety, stress or frustration over his situation.

 In this example it is easy to see how the Stoic approach can be applied to everyday life. The patient realizes he has no control over his situation, believing that he was meant to be in the hospital rather than at his family reunion. After relinquishing control, the patient realizes he has the power to make his situation a pleasant one or an unhappy one by simply controlling his outlook and feelings about the situation. By choosing to have a positive outlook about getting better, the patient was able to reduce the stress, anxiety and fear that are commonly associated with hospital stays, thereby making his experience pleasurable.

In the end, I feel it is possible to approach life with the mindset of a Stoic. This approach at life would help us to live happier lives without as much stress and resentment over things that are out of our control. In the words of Epictetus, “Remember that thou art an actor in a play, of such a kind as the author may choose: if short, a short one; if long, a long one: if he wishes you to act the part of a poor man, see that you act the part naturally: if the part of a lame man, of a magistrate, of a private person (do the same). For this is your duty, to act well the part that was given to you; but to select the part belongs to another.” (Section 7-7).

Word Count: 595

6 comments:

  1. Total number of words in the post: 595

    Spelling errors:In this blog, I could not find any spelling errors.

    Grammatical errors:I found an error in the third paragraph. The sentence, "The patient has no choice in whether or not he came down with the infection", the word "has" should be "had".

    Lack of clarity:I think that the author made their point very clear as to what they were trying to portray. They had very good examples.

    Organization of ideas:Yes, the author has good organization of ideas.

    Did the author answer their question?Yes, the author answered their question.

    Did the author provide a concrete example that clearly illustrates their main point?Yes, the author made good examples that illustrates their main point.

    How does the author’s concrete example illustrate or not illustrate their main point?The author provided in detail a situation, which accurately stated how the Stoic approach is applied in everyday life.

    Do you agree or disagree with the author’s answer and why?Yes, I do agree with the author, because I believe that we only have control over what we do. We do not have control over things that happen around us.

    What is a concrete example that clearly illustrates why you agree or disagree with the author?In paragraph four, "After relinquishing control, the patient realizes he has the power to make his situation a pleasant one or an unhappy one by simply controlling his outlook and feelings about the situation." This sentence is why I agree.

    What is your explanation of how your concrete example clearly illustrates your reason for why you agree or disagree with the author?The things we can't control we have to sometimes give up in thinking that we can control it. Then we have to think that we do have the power to change the situation.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for your peer-review A'sPHI101. Just one note: it's okay for 'has' to remain as 'has.' The description of the entire case is given in the present tense, and the case was offset from the rest of the article.

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  2. 1. I agree completely with my peer assessment. I feel that my peer gave an excellent assessment of my answer. They demonstrated that they understood the material that I presented and agreed with my answer based on the evidence I provided.
    2. My peer was not only able to provide a direct quote that represented why they agreed with my post but they were also able to regurgitate the information in their own words: “Yes, I do agree with the author, because I believe that we only have control over what we do. We do not have control over things that happen around us.” This is how I know my post was actually understood by my peer and that my point came across as I meant it to.

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  3. In today’s day and age, is it possible to lead a productive life guided by the principles of Stoicism? [“Faith in a rationally ordered universe and our intimate relation to the Logos are central aspects of Stoicism. If the universe is divinely ordered, then there is a plan. Things happen to us for a reason—a divinely ordained reason [delete period]” (Section 7-7).]←(This is not a proper use of a quote. You need to introduce quotes. Also, you should only use quoted material when providing textual support or when emphasizing a particular way that an author stated something. In other cases, you should paraphrase and provide a source citation. You should never let the quote do the explaining or use a quote as if it were your own words, even if you provide citation information.) The idea of Stoicism is, in its simplest form, the idea that while we may not be able to control what happens, [we do have some type of influence in the path our life takes.]←(It would have been good if you explained a bit more what kind of influence we have on our life and the path it takes.) As Epictetus so eloquently said, “Henceforth, my mind is the material I have to work on, as the carpenter has his timber and the shoemaker his leather: my business is to deal with my impressions aright. My wretched body is nothing to me, its parts are nothing to me.” (Section 7-8). [What I took him to mean here is that we can only control and have influence over the subjective world around us, not the objective.]←(It’s not a straightforward inference from the quote you used to your interpretation. Can you walk us through the steps you took in arriving at this interpretation?)

    With this basic explanation, one could reason that living a life according to the philosophy of Stoicism would be fairly easy for most. The textbook gives some really great examples on how Stoicism relates to our everyday lives. Another example of how Stoicism applies to everyday life can be found in the following scenario:

    A patient is hospitalized with a serious infection during the time frame of his family reunion. The patient has no choice in whether or not he came down with the infection. The fact of the matter is he got it. He does however have influence on how he perceives his hospital stay and how he treats the people around him. This patient, in line with the Stoicism philosophy, believes that there is a reason behind him coming down with this infection, even though he may not understand what that reasoning is. He would also choose to have a positive outlook on his hospital stay in order to make his stay as pleasant as possible and reduce feelings of anxiety, stress or frustration over his situation.

    In this example it is easy to see how the Stoic approach can be applied to everyday life. The patient realizes he has no control over his situation, believing that he was meant to be in the hospital rather than at his family reunion. After relinquishing control, the patient realizes he has the power to make his situation a pleasant one or an unhappy one by simply controlling his outlook and feelings about the situation. By choosing to have a positive outlook about getting better, the patient was able to reduce the stress, anxiety and fear that are commonly associated with hospital stays, thereby making his experience pleasurable.

    ReplyDelete
  4. [In the end, I feel it is possible to approach life with the mindset of a Stoic. This approach at life would help us to live happier lives without as much stress and resentment over things that are out of our control.]←(Yes, one approach to life may be to relinquish one’s control over it and be happy with whatever it is that happens; but I wonder, could this be a problematic strategy. Could it possibly be a strategy that leads people to accept injustices and conditions of oppression? If so, would the Stoic strategy still be a desirable strategy? The world is constantly changing, and one reason for that is because some people decide that they are not willing to accept the conditions that were given to them. They are not willing to accept the conditions of injustice, inequality, oppression, and mere use. So rather than working at changing themselves (into someone who might be happy with the way things are) they seek to change the world and make it into what they want. Some may say that by making such a choice, these individuals are choosing to sacrifice their happiness for the happiness of their society as a whole. Do you think that these individuals are being foolish? Would you say that Martin Luther King was foolish, that Rosa Parks was foolish, that those who fought for the legalization of same-sex marriage were foolish?) [In the words of Epictetus, “Remember that thou art an actor in a play, of such a kind as the author may choose: if short, a short one; if long, a long one: if he wishes you to act the part of a poor man, see that you act the part naturally: if the part of a lame man, of a magistrate, of a private person (do the same). For this is your duty, to act well the part that was given to you; but to select the part belongs to another.” (Section 7-7).]←(By the way, one other thing you might want to note is that Epictetus was a slave in his youth. He started to teach philosophy after being freed. So one thing you might want to consider is this, does Epictetus’s stoicism simply reinforce the institution of slavery.)

    ReplyDelete