Grayson asked Donald J. Robertson:

I recently read "How to Think Like a Roman Emperor" and I loved it! Since I finished it I've been slowly implementing Stoicism into my life/routine but I've had one major roadblock with Stoicism. I'm a part of a lot of oppressed minority groups, and it's been really difficult to implement Stoicism into the social justice part of my life. Do you have any advice or sources that might help me?

Donald J. Robertson Sorry about this but I actually just saw your question! That's a tough one. I think it might be worth knowing that although people often think of Stoicism as a "Greek" philosophy, there are several indications that it was seen as a foreign immigrant philosophy at Athens for some time. Zeno, the founder, was probably Phoenician and seems to have been looked down on or mocked by some Athenians as a member of a minority ethnic group.

Aristo, a controversial student of Zeno, who actually seems to have become the most popular Stoic for a while, left the Agora to go and teach in a gymnasium outside the city walls called the Cynosarges, where poorer citizens, illegitimate children, and non-citizens exercised and talked. So he probably, in a sense, appealed to the poorer, excluded, and minority groups in Athens at that time.

As for how Stoic philosophy could help today. I think the short answer, as Aristo would say, is that everything comes back to the same fundamental principles. For the Stoics, (social) justice is a virtue, which comprises both fairness and kindness toward others but they balanced that with acceptance of the fact that external events are always ultimately in the hands of fate. Stoicism is about squaring the circle of ethics by remaining committed to acting morally in the world while nevertheless avoiding becoming so entangled with external events that we drive ourselves crazy, or just get angry and frustrated. It's about trying to find a way to care without making ourselves neurotic, if you like. And the Stoic distinction between different types of value attempts to give us a philosophy geared toward doing that.

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