Stoicism

This particular session of our philosophy group is going to be something of an experiment. Rather than simply getting together to discuss a topic, with no expectation of anyone having done any prior reading, we'd like instead to ask everyone to consume a little bit of assigned philosophy ahead of time. The idea is that we'll all come into the evening with this shared experience in mind and the discussion will then center on what we've read (or, in this case, watched).

The subject for tonight is Stoicism, a major philosophical school of thought that flourished in the ancient Greek and Roman world and which today is making something of a comeback. Although Stoicism is also concerned with questions about the nature of reality, it's center of gravity is to do more with practical questions concerning how we ought to live in this world.

Massimo Pigluicci (pill-yoo'-chee), Professor of Philosophy at CUNY in New York City and a fan of Stoicism, gave this informal introduction to the subject a couple of years ago: https://goo.gl/SYh5q3 . The video is about 50 minutes, provides a clear overview of Stoicism, contains lots of interesting ideas, and is our assigned "reading" for this evening.

Some candidate questions for discussion:

(1) Stoicism, unlike many modern academic forms of "philosophy", is focused not on science, knowledge, and analysis but rather on wisdom, character, and practice (see for example the slide at timemark 0:50 in the video). What is the relationship between these two types of philosophy?

(2) What attitude toward life underlies this quote from Epictetus (see timemark 1:25)? ... "I have to die at some point. If it's time to die now, well then ok, I die now; if not, well, then I'll take my lunch now -- and dying I can tend to later".

(3) How is Stoicism like modern secular humanism? How like modern secular Buddhism? (See timemark 11:15.)

(4) How does the application of the Stoic Fork, i.e., the dichotomy of control, lead to equanimity and inner peace? (See timemark 22:50 and following.)

(5) Does Stoicism encourage the suppression of emotion (see timemark 33:00 and following)?

(6) Dr. Pigliucci suggests that philosophies of life, like Stoicism, are not empirically testable (see timemark 47:40 and following, esp 51:05). Is he right?

Lastly, here's an alternative URL for the same video ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seLLJP3H1FU&t=2207s

We are open to all opinions and ask only that everyone be respectful and open-minded.