On the ‘passions’ and reason In a great book,“Stoicism” , the author, Donald Robertson, writes on the wisdom of Stoic thinking. “What does Stoic philosophy demand from us? What promise does it hold out in return? What are the causes of the irrational desires and emotional disturbances for which people seek a remedy in philosophy? What about positive feelings like joy, tranquility and love? Seneca Before getting further into theory and practice, it’s traditional explore what motivates people to become students of Stoic philosophy in the first place. Stoicism is a hard road to follow but we’re told its benefits should, in a manner of speaking, be common sense – with a bit of help, we should be able at least glimpse them from the outset. Although only the perfect Sage enjoys eudaimonia, Seneca claims that unless we embrace philosophy, the love of wisdom, life is not even bearable, because emotional disturbances are allowed free rein. Indeed, the initial motive for most people to study Stoic philosophy simply the alleviation of their own suffering, although the ultimate goal is to excel as a human being. So the promise of philosophy consists of both the supreme Happiness and fulfilment (eudaimonia) of the Sage and the aspiring Stoic’s gradual progress towards overcoming www.capitalideasonline.com Page - 1 On the ‘passions’ and reason disturbing desires and emotions (apatheia), sometimes called the Stoic ‘therapy of the passions’. As far as the ancient Stoics were concerned: ‘The philosopher’s school is a doctor’s clinic’ (Discourses, 3.23). Musonius Rufus Curiously, the Stoics appear to attribute the exhortation to philosophy to Zeus himself, who promises us relief from suffering. Musonius Rufus taught that Zeus ‘orders and encourages’ us to study philosophy. According to him, in a nutshell, the law of Zeus orders humans to be good, which means being philosophers, loving wisdom, being virtuous and magnanimous, rising above pain and pleasure, and being free from animosity towards others. Epictetus follows his teacher, and frequently places similar words in the mouth of Zeus, starting with the first of his compiled lectures. He actually breaks away from his conversation with students to describe an imaginary dialogue between himself and Zeus, who is portrayed as saying he has given us a small portion of himself, our ‘ruling faculty’, which gives us the power to make choices and decisions in life. It is our duty to take care of this divine faculty above all else, as it is our only true possession, and we are granted complete freedom in employing it. If we can learn to prize wisdom above all other things, ‘Zeus’ assures us we will never be obstructed, never become upset or complain, and never become angry with or subservient to any other person. www.capitalideasonline.com Page - 2 On the ‘passions’ and reason Zeus The point Epictetus was making is that the basic principles of Stoicism are learnable from reflection on human nature. They are fundamentally common sense, as Zeus has planted the seed of virtue deep within all of us and so the goal of life is in our very nature. Elsewhere, he asks his students whether Zeus or Nature has not already given them their orders, clearly enough, from the day they were born. Nature has given us what is ours, our judgement and volition, to use freely, in accord with virtue. She has placed everything else beyond our direct control, subject to obstacles and interference. ‘Guard by every means that which your own, but do not grasp at that which is another’s.’ Although the words vary, most of the time Epictetus portrays Zeus as thundering the same basic Stoic message: ‘If you wish any good thing, get it from yourself’ (Discourses, 1.29). Nature itself teaches us that if we want true Happiness, and the good life, we must seek it within ourselves rather than in external things. If we can only do this consistently, Epictetus says, we will achieve perfect freedom, and liberate ourselves from emotional suffering. Happiness or fulfilment, eudaimonia, was known in ancient times as ‘the promise of www.capitalideasonline.com Page - 3 On the ‘passions’ and reason philosophy’. All schools of philosophy basically agreed that this was what they were aiming for, but they disagreed about precisely what it meant. In fact, their different definitions of eudaimonia distinguished one school from another. Zeno described it very concisely as a ‘smoothly flowing’ or serene life, a life of freedom from being thwarted or obstructed in what we seek to achieve. He made it clear that this is achieved by living in harmonious agreement with Nature, and in accord with virtue. However, ‘life is warfare’, and the Stoic achieves serenity by arming himself to face whatever may be inflicted on him by the vicissitudes of events, the turning ‘Wheel of Fortune’. The promise of philosophy was therefore the promise of both Happiness and the emotional resilience to retain it in the face of setbacks. Cicero For what does the promise amount to? This that, heaven willing, philosophy will ensure that the man who has obeyed its laws shall never fail to be armed against all the hazards of fortune: that he shall possess and control, within his own self, every possible guarantee for a satisfactory and Happy life. In other words, that he shall always be a happy man. (Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, 5.7) www.capitalideasonline.com Page - 4 On the ‘passions’ and reason Elsewhere Cicero portrays Happiness in terms of the ‘inner citadel’ of Stoicism: ‘We want the happy man to be safe, impregnable, fenced and fortified, so that he is not just largely unafraid, but completely’ (Tusculan Disputations, 5.41). One of the most important philosophical arguments of the Stoics was that it is impossible to imagine someone who is on the one hand a wise and good man, having attained perfect eudaimonia, and, on the other hand, still plagued by emotional disturbance or pathological desires. The Stoics famously refer to these as the ‘passions’ (pathe); they believed them to be the root cause of all human suffering, and essentially toxic to eudaimonia. The ability to overcome unhealthy fears and desires is termed apatheia, being ‘passionless’ or rather without passions of the problematic sort. It’s where our word ‘apathy’ comes from, but that’s not what it means. As Keith Seddon, a modern Stoic author, puts it, ‘The Stoic will be apathes, without passion (not apathetic, but dispassionate), but not wholly without feeling’. The Stoics also refer to the Sage as having attained ‘tranquillity’ (ataraxia) and ‘freedom’ (eleutheria) from ‘enslavement’ by the passions. However, these endeavours to overcome the ‘passions’ have caused much confusion and led to the widespread misconception that the Stoics are somehow ‘unemotional’ or seek to repress their feelings. This is largely based on a misunderstanding caused by problems of modern translation and interpretation – it’s simply not what they meant. This misinterpretation was repeatedly addressed by the ancient Stoics themselves, though. So let’s pause to reflect on what they actually said… They [the founders of Stoicism] say the wise man is also passionless [apathe, whence our word ‘apathy’], because he is not vulnerable to them. But the bad man is called ‘passionless’ in a different sense, which means the same as ‘hard-hearted’ and ‘insensitive’. (Lives, 7.117) www.capitalideasonline.com Page - 5 On the ‘passions’ and reason Zeno meant that the wise man was not enslaved by his feelings of fear or desire, but we’re explicitly told here that’s not the same as being ‘hard-hearted’ and ‘insensitive’, which is the false impression many people have today of Stoicism. The Roman Stoic Laelius was portrayed, centuries later in a dialogue by Cicero, as saying that it would actually be the greatest possible mistake to try to eliminate natural and healthy feelings such as those of friendship, because even animals experience affection for their offspring, which Stoics viewed as the foundation of human love and friendship (Laelius, On Friendship, 13). We would not only be dehumanizing ourselves by eliminating such natural feelings, he says, but reducing ourselves below animal nature to something more like a mere tree trunk or a stone. We should therefore turn a deaf ear to anyone who foolishly suggests that the good life entails having ‘the hardness of iron’ in terms of our emotions. Epictetus subsequently taught his students that we ought not to be free from passions (apathi) in the sense of being unfeeling ‘like a statue’, because Stoics do care about their family and fellow citizens, for whom they continue to have ‘natural affection’ and a sense of kinship or ‘affinity’. Finally, Seneca, likewise, says: There are misfortunes which strike the sage – without incapacitating him, of course – such as physical pain, infirmity, the loss of friends or children, or the catastrophes of his country when it is devastated by war. I grant that he is sensitive to these things, for we do not impute to him to be hardness of a rock or of iron. There is no virtue in putting up with that which one does not feel. (On the Constancy the Sage, 10.4) www.capitalideasonline.com Page - 6 On the ‘passions’ and reason Diogenes There’s a strange problem, as Seneca points out here, with the notion that the Stoic Sage is completely devoid of emotion. It recalls a story about Diogenes the Cynic, who was asked by a Spartan if he was feeling cold, when training himself by stripping naked and embracing a bronze statue in winter. Diogenes said he was not, and the Spartan replied: ‘What’s so impressive about what you’re doing then?’.