Welcome to Unit 4! This is the first part of Lecture 9 in our course, which focuses on the Stoics’ approach to the good life. We begin by situating Stoicism in the Hellenistic period of Greco-Roman philosophy, tracing the evolution of the school from its origins in Greece through to its development in the Roman world. Before getting into the core ideas of the Stoic system, we first address a common misconception that Stoicism promotes an attitude of passive resignation. We’ll do this by analyzing just what it is the Stoics do and don’t claim — all with a bit of logic!
In this second part of Lecture 9, we discuss the tight integration of physics, logic, and ethics in the Stoic slogan to “live in agreement with nature.” We also investigate the Stoics’ approach to “wishing with reservation” and how they develop a cosmopolitan moral outlook that reaches beyond personal and local concerns to encompass all of humanity.
We continue our study of Stoicism in this first part of Lecture 10. After recapping some of the key features of the Stoic system, we turn to Epictetus’ ideas on what’s “up to us” and the notion of Stoic freedom. We also discuss the differences between Epicureanism and Stoicism, the Stoics’ “cognitivist” view of the emotions, and their promotion of healthy emotions. This video ends with a summary of the Stoic Sage.
This video, the second part of Lecture 10, concludes Unit 4 and our study of Stoicism. We begin by distinguishing between the Sage and the Progressor before moving on to the Stoics’ idea of cultivating indifference and their distinction between “preferred” and “dispreferred” indifferents. This leads us to a reconsideration of the Stoic Sage and the ways in which there are Sage-like figures all around us. The lecture ends by considering some problems for Stoicism and the continuing impact of Stoic theory today.
