Notes for Philosophy 102 at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Fall 2013. http://blogs.ubc.ca/phil102

1. Stoicism:
Epictetus and Cicero
Philosophy 102, University of British Columbia, Fall 2013
Christina Hendricks
Presentation licensed CC-BY-SA

2. Epictetus: ca. 55-135 C.E.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dioecesis_Asiana_400_AD.png
Released into the public domain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_roman_cities_in_Greece-fr.svg Licensed CC-BY-SA

3. Marcus Tullius Cicero
(106 BCE - 43 BCE, Rome)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Extent_of_the_Roman_Republic_and_the_Roman_
Empire_between_218_BC_and_117_AD.png, licensed CC-BY-SA
Bust of Cicero, Capitoline museum:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/neiljs/596
1962134/, licensed CC-BY

4. Questioning the Epicurean view
of greatest good
What might be some problems with saying that
pleasure is the greatest good, the criterion we use to
judge all other things as good (and pain the criterion for
judging all other things as bad)?
You might consider, as part of this:
• Is pleasure always good?
• Is there anything that might count as good in life that
isn‟t so because it is pleasurable or leads to
pleasure?

5. The greatest (indeed the only)
good thing, acc. to Stoics
Must fulfill the following conditions:
• intrinsically good (good in itself), never
instrumentally good (good only b/c it leads to
something else good)
•
always good; can‟t be put to bad use
What could fulfill such conditions?
For the Stoics, only moral virtue is good

6. What does it mean to live
virtuously, for Stoics?
1. Having the “virtues” as generally recognized at the
time, including wisdom/good
reasoning, moderation/selfcontrol, courage, justice, generosity
2. The virtuous person lives “according to Nature” (Sellars
125-129; Epictetus #4, #6)
-- “the Chief Good consists in applying to the conduct of life
a knowledge of the working of natural causes, choosing
what is in accordance with nature and rejecting what is
contrary to it….” (Cicero, de Finibus III.9.31) (assigned
for Wednesday)

7. What does it mean to live
“according to nature?”
1. Following our natural tendencies & instincts
(though not always, as we’ll see)
•
E.g., have a basic drive for self-preservation
(Sellars 108; Cicero de Finibus III.5.16)
•
Need to preserve both physiological being and our
rationality (Sellars 108-109)
•
Preserving rationality includes being consistent
(Epictetus #29)

8. What does it mean to live
“according to nature?”
2. Recognize & accept what humans are naturally
like, what objects are naturally like
•
E.g., humans are subject to suffering and death;
material objects break (Epictetus #2, 3, 14)
•
Understand also your own nature, your own
capacities (Epictetus #29)
•
Recognize that humans are naturally social(Cicero
III.19.63 and III.20.65; Sellars 131)—care for family
is natural; can extend to community, then all
humans

9. What does it mean to live
“according to nature?”
3. Being content with the way the cosmos is
ordered and your place in it; accepting that as
natural laws beyond your control
•
Cosmos is ordered by a rational principle (Cicero
III.19.64), identified with god(s); our reason is part
of the divine rationality
•
Accepting what happens to us (from outside) as the
result of a rational ordering of the cosmos
•
being content with what actually happens (rather than
wishing for something else) (Epictetus #8, 17, 33)

10. What does it mean to live
“according to nature?”
4. Accepting the order of cosmos means not being
attached to things that are out of your control
Epictetus: only be concerned with what is in our control
•
What is in our control? See Epictetus
#1, 4, 6, 16, 18)
•
Don‟t be concerned with things not in our control
(Epictetus #1, 2, 14)

11. What does it mean to live
“according to nature?”
5. Still, some Stoics (such as Cicero) divide “external
things” (not in our control) into “preferred” & “not
preferred”
Sellars (110): Only virtue is good, vice bad; all else
“indifferent”
•
But some indifferents have some value b/c part of living
acc to nature (e.g., health, food, shelter, sometimes
wealth) (Sellars 110, 112; Cicero III.15.50-51)
•
Choosing those only becomes good if done in virtuous
way (next slide).

12. Must live acc to nature in a
certain way to be virtuous
• Appropriate actions: acting in accordance with
nature (as discussed previously) (Sellars 120)
• “completely correct,” or virtuous actions: doing
appropriate actions after “having consciously
deliberated and come to a firm conclusion that these
actions are the most appropriate …” (Sellars 121;
Cicero III.18.59)
• You know what acts are appropriate & why, & choose
them for that reason

13. Must live acc to nature in a
certain way to be virtuous
• Virtuous person has a steady disposition to usually
or always do appropriate acts through rational
deliberation, knowing why they are appropriate, and
doing them b/cappropriate.
• so will be consistent (Cicero III.15.50)
• What matters in action is how you choose, what
motivates you to act (b/c it‟s appropriate), and what
you try to do; even if the act doesn‟t work out, you
have still acted virtuously, so the action is good.

14. Stoicism and emotions
• We have control over emotions, since they result
from judgments of the value of things (Sellars 114115)
• Most emotions are problematic & should be
eliminated; they are often judgments about value of
“indifferents” (Sellars 117-118; Cicero III.10.35); e.g.,
•
•
•
•
Fear (of an “indifferent” occurring in future)
Grief, distress (about a present “indifferent”)
Anger (at what someone else has said or done)
Lust (wanting to have an “indifferent”)

15. Stoicism and emotions
• Some emotions are acceptable, b/c result from
correct judgments about value of virtue (Sellars 119)
• For example:
• Joy, cheerfulness (when &b/c one has virtue)
• Wishing (wanting virtue for self or others)
• Caution or aversion (concern about situations in which
you may make bad choices or not be virtuous)
• Remorse (if you don‟t live up to virtue) (seeStanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy, entry on Epictetus)

16. Stoicism and happiness
Stoics claim that their way of life will bring happiness
(Cicero III.7.26, III.22.75)—why/how?
• Living in accordance w/nature means living well as
the sort of beings we are, physically & mentally as
much as possible.
• Reduced disappointment, frustration—b/c only have
desires, aversions attached to things you can control
• The only good thing is virtue: trying to do and get
what‟s in accordance w/nature in the virtuous way (see
above), so if you don‟t succeed, not disappointed

17. Stoicism and happiness
• Stoic life is one of freedom: we are self-sufficient, in
control of our own lives as much as possible
(Epictetus #1)
• We are not concerned with things beyond our
control, so not “slaves” to external events or other
people (Epictetus #14; Cicero III.22.75, III.13.42)
• We are in control of our own
emotions, desires, aversions, and whether we are
virtuous
• We may want certain things not in our control to
happen, but if they don‟t we can accept that as part of
the rational order of the world (e.g., Epictetus #8).

18. Stoicism and happiness
• If we are living according to nature we have to pay
attention to how things usually work in the world to
find out the nature of humans and other things
around us
• Which means we will likely be successful in getting or
doing things because we will only try if there‟s good
reason to think success is likely.
• A person living a Stoic life well will have few to no
regrets or remorse because they will consistently act
virtuously.

19. Hadot: ancient Greek
philosophy as a way of life
• Philosophy for Socrates, Plato, Epicureans, Stoics
was not just about finding the truth (though it did
involve that)—need for truth was in order to live
better.
• Philosophy was a way of life:
• “the goal of [philosophy] was to transform the whole of
the individual‟s life” (265)
• “real wisdom does not merely cause us to know: it
makes us „be‟ in a different way” (265)
• What we‟ve been reading is “philosophical
discourse,” not philosophy itself (266-267)

20. Hadot: ancient Greek
philosophy as a way of life
• To change one‟s life, one didn‟t just read texts, but
also engaged in various exercises (268), such as
(for the Stoics):
• Paying attention: to one‟s desires, emotions (are
they oriented correctly?), to whether one is
acting/has acted virtuously.
• In morning, think about what have to do during day and
how will do those things; in evening, reflect on how one
has acted.
• Meditating on human mortality so as to get used to
the idea of death.

21. Hadot: ancient Greek
philosophy as a way of life
• Examples of Stoic exercises can be found in this
handbook for “Live Like a Stoic Week 2012” (pp. 1824)
https://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/stoicismtoday/samplepage/stoic-handbook-2012/

22. Hadot: ancient Greek
philosophy as a way of life
• Hadot argues that philosophy is hardly ever
practiced as a way of life anymore, just as an
academic discipline, mostly in universities
• Now we mostly study texts, analyze and criticize
arguments orally and in writing, without this having
much of an impact on our lives.
• A good or bad thing? How might one teach
philosophy as a way of life?