Page 2 THE STOI C Volume 1, Issue 12

BETWEEN US The Stoic sage as a metaphor

The concept of a “Stoic sage” in an intri- never become a sage, there could possibly guing one. According to Stoicism, only a be no end to our learning and practice. Stoic sage is virtuous and happy. Yet none To start off this issue, we review John of us is a sage. Not just that, no one can ever Sellars’ book in which he explores some be a sage. Since one is either virtuous or fundamental Stoic lessons. vicious, happy or unhappy, we are all vi- cious and unhappy. (There is no interme- Then some modern Stoics explore more diate state between happiness and unhap- Stoic learnings: piness, virtue and vice in Stoicism.) Meredith Kunz relates Stoic habits to the This is a harsh pronouncement which discipline of ascent and shows how learn- makes one wonder what could be the pur- ing the right habits could help our Stoic Dr. Chuck Chakrapani pose of a philosophy of eudemonia if the practice. Editor-in-Chief same philosophy declares that eudemonia Jonas Salzgeber discusses how using the is unattainable? reserve clause can increase our equanimity I am sure there is some sophisticated ex- and tranquility. planation of this paradox that can be easily Kai Whiting shares his ideas on how and understood by Stoic scholars. But how do when to argue in social media. the rest of us, who are not Stoic scholars, Sharon Lebell shares a method she uses understand this? everyday to show her gratitude to those Sage is the unattainable model of excel- she is grateful to and ends up with “365 lence, an idealized human being. By defini- vibrant vectors” each year. tion, what is idealized is based on an idea. Donald Robertson teaches us what to eat All we can do is to get closer and closer to and how to eat it. THE STOIC the ideal sage without our ever becoming Journal of The Stoic Gym one ourselves. We may not be “happy” Flora Bernard explores what it means to according to the Stoic definition but we use our time well. Volume I, Issue 12 can have more equanimity as we become One of our readers, Horus Hardtke, sent December 2019 less swayed by negative emotions. We may us a Stoic poem “The Musoleum,” he Published by never be virtuous but we can continue to wrote for himself. He is generous enough TheStoicGym.com decrease our vicious actions. to share it with all of us. Issued free online. All we can do is to move toward the Stoic Of course, we have all other usual features: To subscribe ideal—the sage. If we accept this view, book extracts, Stoic directory, Everyday https://www.thestoicgym.com/ then our Stoic practice becomes one of Stoic etc. Please let us know what you the-stoic-subscribe/ endless learning and practice. Since we can think.

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