On the ideal of Stoic philosophy and its underlying theory

The ideal of Stoic philosophy: the sage and Apatheia

The Stoic sage, despite what claims might be made otherwise, is not utterly emotionless.

He can indeed feel his emotions and their corresponding sensations, e.g., pleasure and pain, but does not act either according to, or in accordance with, these. He acts only rationally, and only so only in accordance with the dictates of his reasoning ability.

In order to understand how this is possible, it is necessary to return to first principles, to reproduce a general system of Stoic philosophy: to understand the how , the why , and the what of the actions and mentality of the Stoic sage, and how these culminate in a state of apatheia.

The foundation of Stoic ethics: cosmology

To understand how apatheia is meant to be manifest, it is necessary to understand the essence and foundation of Stoic ethics, its cosmology. To understand the world is to understand how the world functions, and the function of the whole informs as to the function of its parts.

For the Stoics, the universe is a rationally structured and cohesive whole, with each of its parts directed and determined, working together in a unison to some logically dictated end. In a word, the cosmos is itself tending toward something, and tended to by itself in this tending. This cohesive whole has, interspersed throughout it, what can be called a sort of seminal rationality, or logos, manifest in the beings which are both part of, and inhabit it (i.e. human beings). This logos not only allows these beings to exist, but informs their nature.

Nature

Nature is one of the key concepts within Stoicism, and is founded in this particular interpretation of the cosmos. A thing’s nature is its facility and predilection toward a certain mode of being. For plants , it is vegetative growth and acquiring ends (i.e., nourishment) for itself. For animals, this likewise is the case, but in additionally the pursuit of actions in accordance with and dictated by their impulses(e.g., that predators hunt their prey, that parents tend to their young, are protective of them, etc.).

For the human being , which is endowed with reason and defined by rational action, its nature is to act rationally ; there is, however, a *choice*to act rationally, and this acting so requires degrees of moral, ethical and physical growth. This is where discussions of ethics and virtue arise, as man’s end is to live ‘in accordance with reason’, and in doing so both understand the rationality that pervades the universe, and to abide by it.

Ethical pragmatism begins with an understanding of man’s nature: not only is he a rational animal, but an animal defined by impulse and growth.

Man’s nature, though set apart from the natures of the other inhabitants of the cosmos by his capability to reason, shares at its basis a common nature with all beings.

The beginning of virtue

As all beings, man begins with a drive to self-preservation; he acquires for himself certain ends, and in doing so, perpetuates his own existence. As man progresses from infancy into maturity, his formerly endowed reason progresses with him, and he is better able to understand himself and the universe he inhabits. This impulse or drive to self-preservation grows contemporaneously into a drive for other -preservation; the affection formerly directed solely at the self, is directed towards the self and other s (the Stoics call this process oikeosis).

Thus it begins that man realizes that he has duties not only to himself, but to those around him. Man, cognizant of this, acts dutifully as regards his children, family, friends, fellow-citizens, the state, and, as his circle of relations grows to its fullest extent, the cosmos. Hs actions can be described both as dutiful, but likewise as compassionate, for it is reason that binds him both to duty and to love others – first loving himself, and others thereafter.

Virtue, which is related to ethics (as the virtuous man will act solely ethically), is based on the same premises.

Man’s highest and final goal is to live ‘in accordance with nature’, meaning to say in accordance with his own nature, and even more so, in accordance with the nature of the universe. Man must subvert his own will, and direct his will in whatever-which-way the universes demands that he does.

If the universe demands that he will be poverse, he should accept this gladly – and likewise with its corresponding opposite. All states of being, simply, are states of being that he should be able to adapt to, and make himself comfortable with. He should accept the vagaries of fortune and the universe, for these are not only pre-ordained, but good for the harmony of the whole. To live in accordance with nature means not only acting rationally, as dictates a particular situation, but to show a consistent pattern of rational behavior as regards all situations. The Stoic sage is continually rational, but rational in such a way beyond continuity. This demand calls into the question the possibility of being such, and necessitates the discussion of how this is possible.

This is where the notion of apatheia and passions play into the overall picture of the Stoic sage.

Perfected reason and apatheia

As was belaboured, the Stoic sage is one who lives in complete accordance with his own rational nature; the individual practicing Stoic (who is not yet a sage), however, though possessing a rational soul, is subject to various passions (e.g. anger, lust).

These are problematic, for the fact that they distract the practitioner from his various duties to self and others – not only are they distracting, they may also consume the life of the individual if left undealt with (i.e. as is the case with anxiety). Due to their destructive and deleterious nature if left unchecked, they are referred to in Stoic sources as diseases needed to be treated and extirpated from the soul.

This process of the extirpation of the passions is the study of philosophy, and this rigorous sort of philosophical training is necessary, not only to promote the health of the soul, but to even approach the ideal of becoming the sage.

Philosophy aids in purging one of these mental disturbances by the rooting out of deleterious opinions concerning events and the natures of things; simply put, philosophy helps foster correct conceptions, conceptions which misheld cause one to succumb to the passions aforementioned. An extension of this thought process is the notion that virtue and living virtuously consists in possessing a certain state of mind, an internal mental state which informs one’s actions.

Furthering this,the Stoic sage, being in a state of apatheia, possesses a fully realized knowledge of the world as it is – directed, tending toward some good, and fated (out of his control).

Virtue, then, is inherently intertwined with possessing both knowledge, and a mindset informed by that knowledge. When transposed into the the realm of action, it is the pragmatic and realized extension of that knowledge.

All of this taken into account, apatheia is a state of mind exhibited by the Stoic sage, he himself acting in accordance with certain ethical and moral precepts, informed by the reality of the world that he inhabits, and a state of mind in which there is no serious perturbation or overwhelming, deleterious passion – there is only equanimity, and action that is undertaken in harmony with the universe.

Bibliography:

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