What do you think?
Rate this book
A Guide to Stoicism
A Guide to Stoicism, which is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early 3rd century BC. The Stoics taught that destructive emotions resulted from errors in judgment, and that a sage, or person of "moral and intellectual perfection", would not suffer such emotions. St. George Stock was the son of St George Henry Stock senior of Castle Connell, County Sligo and Frances Wilhelmina Atkinson of Rehins Parish, Ballynahaghish, County Mayo, who were married at St Peter's Church, Dublin on 17 December 1844. He was the fourth of six children. In 1868 St George junior went up to the University of Oxford from Victoria College, Jersey, and was matriculated from Pembroke College on 26 October 1868. His granddaughter Heather Grace Angel was a Hollywood actress.
- GenresPhilosophyNonfiction
36 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 11, 2017
10 people are currently reading
19 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 6, 2020
Quite a compact book, though that it is relatively short but does not make it an easy read, a journey through stoicism, its main sages and its development in ancient Greece... Many delicate and specific terms, you might need a philosophical dictionary beside you...
It is available as an audio book on YouTube, good quality.
It is available as an audio book on YouTube, good quality.
August 24, 2017
This book seems very erudite, but it's not a good primer for Stoicism, at least not to the complete novice, as I am. There are so many, many concepts to learn, and yet the author discusses and defines them once, and moves on, and expects you as the reader to remember what he was talking about. This is unfortunate as learning is less like copying things down once and then it's learned, but more like making a rubbing, where repeated treatments over and over again are paramount to getting the project to its full glory, to say nothing of comprehensibility.
Then again, I listened to this as an audiobook rather than reading a copy, and this is probably a book which must be read and returned to and studied page by page. In that, it may be a relic of its own time.
Then again, I listened to this as an audiobook rather than reading a copy, and this is probably a book which must be read and returned to and studied page by page. In that, it may be a relic of its own time.
February 4, 2021
This book is a detailed historical account of the early developments of stoic philosophy. There are numerous explanations of a lot of substantial differences between stoicism and its natural rival epicureanism. I think you get a pretty good understanding of stoicism's principles in comparison to other Hellenistic philosophies. The book also aims to decipher some of the confusion in the stoics definitions of words; logic, ethics, physics and virtue.
The book is not an easy read and is certainly not for beginners in philosophy as a lot of the language is very technical.
The book is not an easy read and is certainly not for beginners in philosophy as a lot of the language is very technical.
May 29, 2022
A Guide to Stoicism + Review
Philosophy among the Greeks & Romans AND Divisions of Philosophy
- They were materialists
- Philosophy according to stoics: The knowledge of things divine and human.
- Philosophy to the stoics is divided into: 1) Logic 2) Ethic 3) Physic
- Logic means the bones and sinews, physic the flesh and blood and ethic; the soul.
• LOGIC:
Divided into 1) rhetoric and 2) dialectic
Rhetoric: How to speak well in expository discourses
Dialectic: The knowledge of how to argue rightly in matters of questions and answers.
There are five parts of speech:
1) Proper noun
2) Common noun
3) Verb
4) Conjunction
5) Article
There are five virtues of speech:
1) Hellenism: Speaking good Greek
2) Clearness
3) Conciseness
4) Propriety
5) Distinction: A diction which avoided homeliness
Fantasy: Real or imaginary impressions of sense.
- The ideas of Plato, they declared, existed only in our minds.
- There was comprehension by the senses (Such as white and black) and comprehension by the reason of demonstrative conclusions (Such as that God exists).
- Concept: The phantasm of the understanding of a rational animal.
Being was confined by the stoics to body.
A substance/body might be regarded in four ways:
1) Simply as a body
2) As a body of a particular kind
3) As a body in particular state
4) As a body in a particular relation
A dict: That which subsists in correspondence with a rational fantasy.
Three things involved when anything was said:
1) The sound 2) The sense 3) The external object
The first and the last were body but the intermediate one was not a body.
The only moods spoken of are the moods of the complex syllogism.
Their type of reasoning was:
- If A, then B. But A, B
- Truth can be followed by truth
For example in: Saying it is day, any consequence of that statement i.e., that is light, must be true also.
- Falsehood may be followed by falsehood or truth.
Example: It is night, and the consequence that is dark is false also.
• ETHICS:
There were 8 parts of the soul: The five organ senses, the organ of sound, the intellect and the reproductive principle.
Self-preservation was the first law of life.
- The things that were in accordance with his nature were:
1) Health
2) Strength
3) Good bodily condition
4) Soundness of all the senses (?)
5) Beauty
6) Swiftness
The their opposites are not in accordance with nature, thus vices.
Virtue was the perfection of reason.
To be happy is to be virtuous, to be virtuous is to be rational, to be rational was to follow nature and to follow nature was to obey God.*
Virtue is knowledge.
The four cardinal virtues (from Plato):
1) Wisdom: determines what is the right thing to do.
2) temperance: impart stability to the impulses.
3) courage: Facing dangers and difficulties, but it was not courage unless its cause were just.
4) Justice: Assigning each man his due but in the act of doing so had to bring in the other virtues.
In stoicism there is the good, evil and indifferent:
The indifferent is something which is possible to have and not be virtuous.
A paradox is meant that which runs counter to general opinion.
Stoicism paradoxes:
- Every fool is mad
- Only the sage is free and every fool is a slave.
- The sage alone is wealthy
- Good men are always happy and bad men are always miserable.
- All goods are equal.
Law: Right reason commanding what was to be done and forbidding what was not to be done.
As a member of a state and by nature subject to law, man was essentially a social being between all the wise, there existed unanimity which was a knowledge of the common good.
The most approved constitution tot he stoics was a mixed government containing democratic, aristocratic and monarchical elements.
"The apathy or passionlessness of the sage is another of his most salient features. The passions being on Zeno showing not natural but forms of disease. The sage as being the perfect man would be holy free from them. The sage therefore would never be moved by a feeling of favor towards anyone, he would never pardon a fault, he would never feel pity, he would never be prevailed upon by entreaty, he would never be stirred to anger.
He was impervious to wonder, no miracle of nature could excite his astonishment. From the absence of passion it is but a step to the absence of error.
The sage, it was maintained, held no opinions, he never repented of his conduct, he was never deceived in anything between the daylight of knowledge and darkness of nescience.”
• PHYSIC:
Two principles of all things:
1) The active: The logos (GOD)
2) The passive: The unqualified being which is known as matter.
An element was defined as that out of which things at first come into being and into which they are at last resolved.
The man is one sense the soul in another the body and in a third a union of both.
---------
- Reason was with them a principle of action, with Aristotle it was a principle that guided action.
- They were the first to recognize the worth of man as man.
- They proclaimed to the world the fatherhood of god and the brotherhood of man.
- They were convinced of the solidarity of mankind and laid down that the interest of one must be subordinated to that of all.
Review
I read that this is a bit of a hard book if you are not familiar with ancient Greek philosophy. And I agree. Stoicism isn’t really an original philosophy. Much of its ideas were taken from the previous ones—Platonism, Epicurean, Aristotelean. This book discusses some of the previous philosophies in a way that is expected from you to have prior knowledge before reading this book.
If you know about ancient philosophy, you sure will understand this book. I enjoyed listening to this book, and it explains briefly the fundamental principles of Stoicism. The author pointed out that this school of thought influenced Christianity and its rise. Its ethics advocates philanthropy and doing your duty.
To be honest, I did not like Stoicism much. Some of its principles are great and provide peace to your mind. Other than that, it extracts you from your emotions. Its goal--tranquility--is acquired by abandoning passions.
It is like telling you to live emotionless — in apathy. Whatever happens to you (external things), you must not let it bother you(which is somehow a good way of coping, however, it is also good to acknowledge your emotions and not neglect them). It sometimes gives the sense of a malevolent world and that Stoicism is a form of coping mechanism which makes you emotionless and the (apathetic) sage whom you should be to deal with misery. It is like saying you should be emotionless because this universe is always against you, and you must well know that nothing is in your control to deal with what is external therefore you must become apathetic.
This book offered me guidance on their logic (which is interesting!), ethics, and physic. I recommend it.
Philosophy among the Greeks & Romans AND Divisions of Philosophy
- They were materialists
- Philosophy according to stoics: The knowledge of things divine and human.
- Philosophy to the stoics is divided into: 1) Logic 2) Ethic 3) Physic
- Logic means the bones and sinews, physic the flesh and blood and ethic; the soul.
• LOGIC:
Divided into 1) rhetoric and 2) dialectic
Rhetoric: How to speak well in expository discourses
Dialectic: The knowledge of how to argue rightly in matters of questions and answers.
There are five parts of speech:
1) Proper noun
2) Common noun
3) Verb
4) Conjunction
5) Article
There are five virtues of speech:
1) Hellenism: Speaking good Greek
2) Clearness
3) Conciseness
4) Propriety
5) Distinction: A diction which avoided homeliness
Fantasy: Real or imaginary impressions of sense.
- The ideas of Plato, they declared, existed only in our minds.
- There was comprehension by the senses (Such as white and black) and comprehension by the reason of demonstrative conclusions (Such as that God exists).
- Concept: The phantasm of the understanding of a rational animal.
Being was confined by the stoics to body.
A substance/body might be regarded in four ways:
1) Simply as a body
2) As a body of a particular kind
3) As a body in particular state
4) As a body in a particular relation
A dict: That which subsists in correspondence with a rational fantasy.
Three things involved when anything was said:
1) The sound 2) The sense 3) The external object
The first and the last were body but the intermediate one was not a body.
The only moods spoken of are the moods of the complex syllogism.
Their type of reasoning was:
- If A, then B. But A, B
- Truth can be followed by truth
For example in: Saying it is day, any consequence of that statement i.e., that is light, must be true also.
- Falsehood may be followed by falsehood or truth.
Example: It is night, and the consequence that is dark is false also.
• ETHICS:
There were 8 parts of the soul: The five organ senses, the organ of sound, the intellect and the reproductive principle.
Self-preservation was the first law of life.
- The things that were in accordance with his nature were:
1) Health
2) Strength
3) Good bodily condition
4) Soundness of all the senses (?)
5) Beauty
6) Swiftness
The their opposites are not in accordance with nature, thus vices.
Virtue was the perfection of reason.
To be happy is to be virtuous, to be virtuous is to be rational, to be rational was to follow nature and to follow nature was to obey God.*
Virtue is knowledge.
The four cardinal virtues (from Plato):
1) Wisdom: determines what is the right thing to do.
2) temperance: impart stability to the impulses.
3) courage: Facing dangers and difficulties, but it was not courage unless its cause were just.
4) Justice: Assigning each man his due but in the act of doing so had to bring in the other virtues.
In stoicism there is the good, evil and indifferent:
The indifferent is something which is possible to have and not be virtuous.
A paradox is meant that which runs counter to general opinion.
Stoicism paradoxes:
- Every fool is mad
- Only the sage is free and every fool is a slave.
- The sage alone is wealthy
- Good men are always happy and bad men are always miserable.
- All goods are equal.
Law: Right reason commanding what was to be done and forbidding what was not to be done.
As a member of a state and by nature subject to law, man was essentially a social being between all the wise, there existed unanimity which was a knowledge of the common good.
The most approved constitution tot he stoics was a mixed government containing democratic, aristocratic and monarchical elements.
"The apathy or passionlessness of the sage is another of his most salient features. The passions being on Zeno showing not natural but forms of disease. The sage as being the perfect man would be holy free from them. The sage therefore would never be moved by a feeling of favor towards anyone, he would never pardon a fault, he would never feel pity, he would never be prevailed upon by entreaty, he would never be stirred to anger.
He was impervious to wonder, no miracle of nature could excite his astonishment. From the absence of passion it is but a step to the absence of error.
The sage, it was maintained, held no opinions, he never repented of his conduct, he was never deceived in anything between the daylight of knowledge and darkness of nescience.”
• PHYSIC:
Two principles of all things:
1) The active: The logos (GOD)
2) The passive: The unqualified being which is known as matter.
An element was defined as that out of which things at first come into being and into which they are at last resolved.
The man is one sense the soul in another the body and in a third a union of both.
---------
- Reason was with them a principle of action, with Aristotle it was a principle that guided action.
- They were the first to recognize the worth of man as man.
- They proclaimed to the world the fatherhood of god and the brotherhood of man.
- They were convinced of the solidarity of mankind and laid down that the interest of one must be subordinated to that of all.
Review
I read that this is a bit of a hard book if you are not familiar with ancient Greek philosophy. And I agree. Stoicism isn’t really an original philosophy. Much of its ideas were taken from the previous ones—Platonism, Epicurean, Aristotelean. This book discusses some of the previous philosophies in a way that is expected from you to have prior knowledge before reading this book.
If you know about ancient philosophy, you sure will understand this book. I enjoyed listening to this book, and it explains briefly the fundamental principles of Stoicism. The author pointed out that this school of thought influenced Christianity and its rise. Its ethics advocates philanthropy and doing your duty.
To be honest, I did not like Stoicism much. Some of its principles are great and provide peace to your mind. Other than that, it extracts you from your emotions. Its goal--tranquility--is acquired by abandoning passions.
It is like telling you to live emotionless — in apathy. Whatever happens to you (external things), you must not let it bother you(which is somehow a good way of coping, however, it is also good to acknowledge your emotions and not neglect them). It sometimes gives the sense of a malevolent world and that Stoicism is a form of coping mechanism which makes you emotionless and the (apathetic) sage whom you should be to deal with misery. It is like saying you should be emotionless because this universe is always against you, and you must well know that nothing is in your control to deal with what is external therefore you must become apathetic.
This book offered me guidance on their logic (which is interesting!), ethics, and physic. I recommend it.
March 18, 2020
A short into to stoicism and philosophy
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews