Stoics Cons

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Discuss the pros and cons of living like a Stoic: Stoicism is a hellenistic philosophical theory which originated in ancient Greece. Famous Stoics include Cleanthes and Seneca. According to Stoicism, the universe can be rationally explained. For the Stoics, the universe and everything in it is material. Everything is made up of elements, both passive and active. It is the active elements that make up everything that is the spirit, or pneuma, of everything. These elements are made active by Zeus whom animates the world. Stoics also believe that humans have a goal. This goal is to achieve “complete harmony between a man’s own attitudes and actions and the actual course of events” (Long and Long, 1992, pp. 108 – 108). The Stoics also had views…show more content…
For Stoics, we make a decision to feel emotions or not. It is up to the hegemonikon to make the choice of letting us feel emotions. When events take place, we receive an impression of the feeling in response to the event. We receive an impression of sadness, happiness, anger, jealousy, etc, in response to the event that took place. It is up to the hegemonikon to assent to the impression or not. If the hegemonikon allows, we feel the emotion, if not, we don’t. Stoics believe that we should not give assent to the impressions. We shouldn’t feel these emotions as they blight our lives. True freedom, for a Stoic, is to achieve freedom from emotions. However, there is one good emotion that Stoics feel and that is joy. Joy is felt when the harmony between one’s attitude to events and what takes place is achieved. The Stoic view on feeling emotions is one that causes issues for many and is seen as a disadvantage of living like a Stoic. This is because the idea of feeling nothing except content when harmony is achieved can be seen as cold and harsh.It is an unsympathetic and remorseless way of living and for many, the idea of not being allowed to feel emotions is not a particularly attractive way of living. Therefore, this can be seen as a disadvantage to living like a
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