Stoic News

Nihilism and Modernist Literature

2010-11-22T12:25:00.000-08:00

"The Arts reflect the spirit of the age and literature is no exception. Nihilism, a worldview that rejects ultimate meaning and purpose in life, heavily influenced the literature of the early 20th century, in which this philosophy was illustrated and addressed. The influence of nihilism is particularly evident in The Sun Also Rises, The Sound and the Fury, and “The Wasteland”."

Stoicism in a Nutshell

2008-07-05T10:03:00.000-07:00

"So now the threads of the sections can be tied
together. Someone who judges truly will never be unhappy,
will in fact experience continual uninterrupted appropriate
positive feelings, and will always act virtuously. Anyone
would agree that someone who led a life like that was
happy. Judgment is in our control. Hence, not only is
prefect continual happiness possible, it is actually in our
control--we can actually guarantee it by simply judging
correctly, and acting on those judgments."

Annotated bibliographic reference for Thomas Jefferson

2008-05-11T12:18:00.000-07:00

Author: Navakas, Edward H.
Title: “Thomas Jefferson's Need for Liberty: Obsessive Personality Style and the Quest for Certainty,”
Publication: The Psychiatric Forum
Volume: 1
Date: (no. 2, 1988)
Extent: 1-2, 12.

Notes: “Published quarterly by the Loyola University Department of Psychiatry in conjunction with the Hines V. A. Hospital Psychiatry Service. ” Uses the work of Leon Salzman on the nature of obsessive personality in order to discuss “the embodiment of obsessive personality style, a man striving to create a world of perfect individual liberty that is immune to time, change, and the vagaries of others. ” Emphasizes that TJ is not simply “a neurotic mistaken for a great man” because obsessiveness is for him a style of adaptation to the world and not a denial of it.

Carl Rogers

2008-05-06T07:27:00.000-07:00

Here's C. George Boree a third time:

"...to the extent that our society is out of synch with the actualizing tendency, and we are forced to live with conditions of worth that are out of step with organismic valuing, and receive only conditional positive regard and self-regard, we develop instead an ideal self. By ideal, Rogers is suggesting something not real, something that is always out of our reach, the standard we can’t meet.

"This gap between the real self and the ideal self, the “I am” and the “I should” is called incongruity. The greater the gap, the more incongruity. The more incongruity, the more suffering. In fact, incongruity is essentially what Rogers means by neurosis: Being out of synch with your own self. If this all sounds familiar to you, it is precisely the same point made by Karen Horney!"

Alfred Adler

2008-05-06T07:13:00.000-07:00

As I said, Horney seems to have been influenced by Alfred Adler. Here is C. George Boree, again:

"Alfred Adler postulates a single "drive" or motivating force behind all our behavior and experience. By the time his theory had gelled into its most mature form, he called that motivating force the striving for perfection. It is the desire we all have to fulfill our potentials, to come closer and closer to our ideal. It is, as many of you will already see, very similar to the more popular idea of self-actualization.

"Perfection" and "ideal" are troublesome words, though. On the one hand, they are very positive goals. Shouldn't we all be striving for the ideal? And yet, in psychology, they are often given a rather negative connotation. Perfection and ideals are, practically by definition, things you can't reach. Many people, in fact, live very sad and painful lives trying to be perfect! As you will see, other theorists, like Karen Horney and Carl Rogers, emphasize this problem. Adler talks about it, too. But he sees this negative kind of idealism as a perversion of the more positive understanding. We will return to this in a little while."

Karen Horney

2008-05-05T18:02:00.000-07:00

The core concept of Karen Horney's theory of character neurosis is the neurotic need for perfection.

C. George Boree on Horney's theory:

"At first glance, it may appear that Horney stole some of Adler's best ideas. It is clear, for example, that her three coping strategies are very close to Adler's three types. It is, of course, quite conceivable that she was influenced by Adler. But if you look at how she derived her three strategies -- by collapsing groups of neurotic needs -- you see that she simply came to the same conclusions from a different approach. There is no question, of course, that Adler and Horney (and Fromm and Sullivan) form an unofficial school of psychiatry. They are often called neo-Freudians, although that is rather inaccurate. Unfortunately, the other common term is the Social Psychologists which, while accurate, is a term already used for an area of study.

"Please notice how Horney's self theory fleshes out Adler's theory about the differences between healthy and neurotic striving for perfection, and (to get ahead of ourselves a bit) how similar this conception is to Carl Rogers'. I usually feel that, when different people come up with similar ideas relatively independently, this is a good sign we're getting at something valuable!"

2008-05-02T08:19:00.000-07:00

I've changed the title of this blog back to the original name. I no longer identify with Christianity and Christian doctrine, as represented in the Christian Creed.

I've thought for a very long time that Christianity is not the faith of Jesus, but a faith in Jesus, invented by the apostle Paul.

I'm thinking of myself as a follower of Jesus of Nazareth trying to emulate his faith in God and his faithfulness to the Torah.

Dave Winer interviews George Lakoff

2008-02-26T11:33:00.000-08:00

Great interview by Dave Winer of cognitive scientist George Lakoff: discussion of the 2008 Presidential race and language. I believe that this long listen (1:05 hrs.) is a must for politically interested progressives.

Mirroring entry at http://ptypes.pitas.com/

Testing

2008-01-21T09:57:00.000-08:00

Ptypespitooie

Stoic and Christian Conceptions of Happiness

2007-08-22T11:35:00.000-07:00

This paper looks interesting.

"Despite the popular identity of the Stoic and Christian conceptions of
happiness, in this paper I will argue that the Christian conception of happiness has, in fact, greater correspondence with the Aristotelian tradition than with the Stoic outlook. External goods, while certainly insufficient for happiness in themselves, are nevertheless presented in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as goods necessary for the temporal happiness of the Christian in this life. If I am successful in this argument, then the traditional "Stoic" (or stolid) perception of Christianity will have to give way to a nuanced "Aristotelian" or truly biblical outlook of Christian happiness, for Stoicism is, at least in principle, far more ascetic than is biblical Christianity."

Reinhold Niebuhr: Man as Sinner

2006-11-29T11:26:00.000-08:00

"Niebuhr’s critics have said that he paid an inordinate amount of attention to the doctrine of sin. They have said that it was his controlling insight, the most fundamental of his ideas, the clue to his anthropology, and his most valuable contribution to contemporary theology. Some liberal critics seem to have blamed him for sin because he rediscovered some of its dimensions. My own feeling is that this doctrine was not his central concern, although it was a central pole around which his writings gathered."

Reinhold Niebuhr

Soul, Self, Psuche

2006-11-25T13:02:00.000-08:00

http://www.bibletexts.com/terms/soul.htm

http://www.bibletexts.com/glossary/soul.htm#psuche

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=self+soul+psuche

Sin, Theodicy & Politics

2006-08-28T09:04:00.000-07:00

"In fairness, it must be conceded that modern American conservatism has little of the Niebuhrian spirit itself. Ronald Reagan, the most successful conservative the country has ever known, was at heart a cockeyed optimist, and his untroubled confidence in the limitless possibilities of American civilization was untouched by Niebuhrian reservations. The fact that Niebuhrians fare badly at either end of the political spectrum suggests that, for most Americans, the politics of original sin is an alien notion.

"Maybe that offers a useful lesson. Maybe all Augustinian Christians—which Niebuhr certainly was—need periodically to remind themselves that even in the (relatively) good earthly dwelling that America provides, we have here no abiding city."

http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9811/opinion/nuechterlein.html

Excerpt from Addiction and Grace by Gerald G. May

2006-08-23T17:52:00.000-07:00

"For generations, psychologists thought that virtually all self-defeating behavior was caused by repression. I have now come to believe that addiction is a separate and even more self-defeating force that abuses our freedom and makes us do things we really do not want to do. While repression stifles desire, addiction attaches desire, bonds and enslaves the energy of desire to certain specific behaviors, things, or people. These objects of attachment then become preoccupations and obsessions; they come to rule our lives."

In Memoriam: Dr. Gerald May 1940-2005

2006-08-21T07:44:00.000-07:00

"Dr. Gerald May, Shalem's Senior Fellow in Contemplative Theology and Psychology died in April 2005 at the age of 64 after a lengthy illness. Well-known for his writings on psychology and spirituality, Jerry authored numerous articles and books over the span of 35 years, including Addiction & Grace, Will & Spirit, The Awakened Heart, and most recently, Dark Night of the Soul."

I just read Gerald May's last book, The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth. It touched me deeply and was of great benefit.

Sin (Augustine)

2006-08-16T13:38:00.000-07:00

"Augustine shows clearly the religious character of sin. Sin for him is not a moral failure; it is not even disobedience. Disobedience is a consequence but not the cause. The cause is: turning away from God, and from God as the highest good, as the love with which God loves Himself, through us. For this reason, since sin has this character -- if you say "sins", it is easily dissolved into moral sins; but sin is first of all basically the power of turning away from God. For this very reason, no moral remedy is possible. Only one remedy is possible: return to God. But this of course is possible only in the power of God, and this power is lost. This is the state of man under the conditions of existence. ... Paul Tillich, A History of Christian Thought"

John Mark Ministries

Did the Church lose faith in the efficacy of its doctrine?

2006-06-19T13:33:00.000-07:00

That's what it looks like. The priests' sinful behavior of habitual sex abuse were signs of severe theological, spiritual, and religious problems. The solution could only be complete true reprentance and conversion, or reconversion, to the faith. But the Church chose to pass the problem off to psychiatric experts.

Giving Healing and Hope to Priests who Molested

"Few priests refer themselves to St. Luke or other centers. Most are ordered by religious superiors to undergo evaluation and treatment. Patients usually stay at St. Luke for about six months. Their evaluation includes personality profiles, intelligence tests, interviews by therapists, physical examinations, tests for brain dysfunction and the construction of a detailed sexual history.

"After the diagnosis, which is shared with religious superiors, patients begin an intense period of group and individual therapy sessions. "The breakdown of denial, that is the heart of it," said the Rev. Curtis C. Bryant, St. Luke's Director of Inpatient Clinical Services.

"Other residents play a critical role in forcing patients to stop minimizing their actions and to feel the pain they have inflicted on others, Father Bryant said. Therapy also aims at uncovering the deeper sources of compulsive behavior and at understanding the patterns it has taken so that relapses can be foreseen and forestalled.

"An abusive priest who had undergone similar treatment on the West Coast described the process of genuinely acknowledging his behavior and responsibility as so painful that he contemplated suicide. Father Bryant said the residents often help one another through this. Re-Enacting Scenes of Abuse

"St. Luke's program is designed to pierce the defenses of highly intelligent and well-educated patients, men with the verbal ability to rationalize or mask their feelings. In impromptu psychodrama sessions, patients may re-enact scenes of sexual abuse they were themselves subjected to as youths or situations that have typically preceded their own offenses.

"Some voluntarily receive weekly injections of depo-provera, an anti-androgen that reduces sexual drive.

"Before treatment is completed, Dr. Montana said, the staff communicates the patient's prognosis to his religious superiors and reviews any church positions, like administrative jobs or chaplaincies in nursing homes, that the priest could safely carry out.

"Everyone completing treatment draws up a detailed contract for continuing care, which involves attending support group meetings four times a week, psychotherapy each week and spiritual direction and abstaining from alcohol. Afterward, patients must regularly return to the Institute for weeklong assessments and workshops."

Failure of Catholic Psychology in Priest Sex Abuse?

2006-06-19T12:48:00.000-07:00

I don't think that the apparent failure of Catholic psychology in the priest sex abuse scandal, both as a contributing factor of the sexual misconduct and as revealed in the failure to rehabilitate so many priests, has been sufficiently emphasized.

Modern Psychology and Priest Sex Abuse

"It is the contention of this essay that there were significant changes in psychological theory as taught in Catholic Universities and practiced in seminary formation programs in the 1950s-1960s, the practical results of which became manifest only after Vatican II. It was, in essence, the acceptance of a new psychological theory that resulted in, on the part of priests, the loosening of the moral restraints on personal behavior, but especially, relative to the current crisis, on genital sexual activity."

Extant Google Co-op Contexts

2006-05-31T17:57:00.000-07:00

Contributors to Google Co-op may create Topics, or "contexts," that subscribers can use to refine their searches. My context is Personality. Here is the short list of those who have created contexts.

2006-05-24T13:50:00.001-07:00

Some of the folks at the discussion board Ediots, where I am a member, have developed the enneagram ...info from the underground

Rejoicing Over the Da Vinci Code

2006-05-15T12:31:00.000-07:00

Catholic Analysis:

"Here's the timely Scripture text:

"Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you."

2006-03-13T13:00:00.000-08:00

Father of neoconservatives: nowadays, the truest disciples of the liberal theologian Reinhold Niebuhr are conservatives. - Michael Novak, National Review; 5/11/1992.

"This is the one-hundredth year (centesimus annus) since the birth of Reinhold Niebuhr. There is no one on the Christian Left who fills his shoes today. Indeed, a significant number of Christians who have become disillusioned with the Left (as Niebuhr was with "liberals" in his time) call him their father. Others may regard them as illegitimate children (may perhaps state their view even more pungently). The fact is, neoconservatives cite Niebuhr at least as often as those on the Left do."

2006-03-10T11:56:00.000-08:00

Forgetting Reinhold Niebuhr...and Ignoring Him, Too

"There was a time when I was highly critical of Niebuhr. Now I think he was more than wise, and it is the Niebuhrians like Schlesinger who bother me. Schlesinger is right, however, to lament the passing of Niebuhr's influence -- a passing of which he himself unintentionally provides such a good example."

2006-03-09T13:15:00.000-08:00

Every student should read Reinhold Niebuhr.

2006-03-09T11:50:00.001-08:00

The American Association of Christian Counselors reprints an essay by Reinhold Niebuhr (1941), "Christian Faith and the World Crisis."

2006-02-28T11:32:00.000-08:00

My new Google page: ptypes's home page

The Lost Sense of Sin in Psychology

2006-01-11T12:03:00.000-08:00

An interview with Andrew Sodergren: The Lost Sense of Sin in Psychology

"ARLINGTON, Virginia, DEC. 22, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Psychology needs to examine the role of sin in mental health, in the light of Christian anthropology, says a Catholic therapist.

"Andrew Sodergren is a therapist at the Alpha Omega Clinic and Consultation Services, and a doctoral candidate at the Institute for the Psychological Sciences (IPS)."

Pat Robertson

2006-01-06T09:59:00.000-08:00

Dignan asks: "Has there ever been a worse spokesperson for Christians?" (via blogs4God).

The Cathoic Church Nurtured Capitalism

2005-12-16T13:38:00.000-08:00

Catholic Analysis points to a column by David Brooks on how it was the Catholic Church that nurtured capitalism.

Karen Horney and Reinhold Niebuhr

2005-12-12T08:45:00.000-08:00

Karen Horney's mature personality theory, joined (Cooper) with the Christian theological psychology of Reinhold Niebuhr, forms the psychological backbone of PTypes. You can begin to investigate Karen Horney's theory at Intrapsychic Strategies of Defense.

Katolik Shinja

2005-11-30T08:38:00.000-08:00

Notes on the Church and the World by an American Catholic in Korea

Deposed Royalty: Pascal’s Anthropological Argument

2005-09-17T10:05:00.000-07:00

Pascal found both Stoicism and Skepticism to be fatally lacking.

"Each system of thought contains a truth negated by the other. Stoicism conserves greatness and rejects wretchedness, thus lapsing into presumption and pride. Skepticism conserves wretchedness and rejects greatness, thus lapsing into despondency. Even though it appears that “there would be formed from their alliance a perfect system of morals,”22 the two systems of thought cannot be synthesized by selecting compatible elements from each system. This is because Stoicism promotes certainty, while skepticism promotes doubt; Stoicism argues for the greatness of humanity, and skepticism argues for the weakness of humanity. Given this incompatibility, each system “would destroy the truths as well as the falsehoods of each other.”23 Neither system can stand alone because of its one-sidedness, nor can the two systems unite because of their mutually exclusive presuppositions. Each view contradicts the other while, nevertheless, offering partial truths reconcilable only through another anthropology entirely: that provided by the Christian doctrine of creation and the fall. “Thus they break and destroy each other to give place to the truth of the Gospel.”"

Is God necessary for a Stoic ethics?

2005-07-21T07:56:00.000-07:00

Over at the Stoic forum, Nigel Glassborow captures very nicely the essence of Stoicism.

"So we start to get an inkling as to why the Living Cosmos is essential to Stoic philosophy and ethics. The conclusions arrived at from the knowledge they put together convinced the Stoics of old that to live life well meant living life virtuously, in full recognition that the individual is just a spark of the whole, and so the selfish longing to live life well required that one lives life selflessly. One has to live for the whole Self rather than the Self contained in one’s mortal body. And the whole Self is the living Cosmos."

The Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God

2005-07-19T09:51:00.000-07:00

Keith Seddon is, as far as I know, the leading Stoic in the world. He is the co-moderator of the International Stoic Forum and has recently resumed regular posting there upon finishing a book on Epictetus which will be out this fall. What Keith has to say can benefit all. A very recent post:

"Here is one argument for the existence of God, the Cosmological Argument, which I wheel out on this Forum roughly once a year. (It is saved in the Files section of the Forum.) I have not seen an attempt to refute it (tho I think one or two people have offered what they take to be a refutation), and I have not seen a refutation that urges me to abandon my acceptance of the argument.

"The Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God, as far as I know, was not known by the ancient Stoics, who refer to only the Argument from Design.

"The following is a slightly amended version from Tom Morris's PHILOSOPHY FOR DUMMIES (p. 248):"

Sin, Pride, and Self-Acceptance

2005-07-08T07:45:00.000-07:00

"Pride and self-hate belong inseparably together; they are two expressions of one process." - Karen Horney

Updated link!

Winning vs. Pride (by Jeremy Zawodny)

2005-06-25T07:36:00.000-07:00

"I'd rather be involved in building things I can really be proud of than obsessed with winning."

I've begun to see pride as the fundamental motivator. So, pride in winning and pride in accomplishment are forms of pride. It's Ernest Becker's "causa sui project" or in Christian terms, the pride project.

Thomas Aquinas argued that pride is the first sin, the source of all other sins, and the worse sin.

Ten Most Harmful Books

2005-06-01T14:30:00.000-07:00

"HUMAN EVENTS asked a panel of 15 conservative scholars and public policy leaders to help us compile a list of the Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries."

2005-05-31T10:58:00.000-07:00

The Real Compulsives get rid of the anxiety attendent with the thought of sin by consenting to the sin.

San Juan de la Cruz: Avisos Espirituales

2005-05-28T14:41:00.000-07:00

"Las condiciones del pájaro solitario son cinco. La primera, que se va a lo más alto; la segunda, que no sufre compañía, aunque sea de su naturaleza; la tercera, que pone el pico al aire; la cuarta, que no tiene determinado color; la quinta, que canta suavemente. Las cuales ha de tener el alma contemplativa: que se ha de subir sobre las cosas transitorias, no haciendo más caso de ellas que si no fuesen; y ha de ser tan amiga de la soledad y silencio, que no sufra compañía de otra criatura; ha de poner el pico al aire del Espíritu Santo, correspondiendo a sus inspiraciones, para que, haciéndolo así, se haga más digna de su compañía; no ha de tener determinado color, no teniendo determinación en ninguna cosa, sino en lo que es voluntad de Dios; ha de cantar suavemente en la contemplación y amor de su Esposo."

William Golding Lord of the Flies Literary Criticism

2005-05-28T09:41:00.000-07:00

"Golding's own explanation for the breakdown of civilization in Lord of the Flies was delivered in a lecture given in 1962 at the University of California at Los Angeles. He describes the breakdown as resulting from nothing more complex than the inherent evil of man: "So the boys try to construct a civilization on the island; but it breaks down in blood and terror because the boys are suffering from the terrible disease of being human""

"[A]ll of the clashes can be explained in Golding's view; they are the result of the beast inherent in both boys. The clash that arises from the discussion of the beast does not result from Ralph's extreme rationalism, but rather from the murmurings of the beast within him: "Something he had not known was there rose in him and compelled him to make the point, loudly and again" (Golding 34). Motivated by that inherent evil, that original sin of pride, both boys assert their power."

Human Defensiveness: the Third Way

2005-05-27T08:46:00.000-07:00

"Let us be ruthless to root out theoretical structures that view people as psychological or socio-psychological abstractions: the phenomena observed are not “ego defense mechanisms” but are pride’s offensive, defensive, and deceptive strategies. And let us also forswear the therapeutic assumptions that are consequent to the theory: they are poor and deceptive substitutes for the gospel of Jesus Christ."

Ordinary Evil

2005-05-26T18:19:00.000-07:00

"In this seminar, Candace Vogler (right) addresses this sense of mute incomprehension in the face of wrongdoing as one root of an old philosophical question about whether it is irrational to be immoral. It is closely linked to another root of that question, the conviction that people who do spectacularly bad things, or routinely engage in bad acts on a lesser scale, are making some kind of a mistake. In philosophy, the problem that emerges from such convictions involves trying to say what sort of mistake they are making. Vogler will not answer that question. What she does instead is discuss viciousness, drawing heavily on work by Thomas Aquinas (and offering a reading of a short story by Edgar Allan Poe), with an eye toward giving an account of some kinds of immorality. Once that account is in place, it becomes possible to understand why it is very hard to give a compelling answer to the deeper question."

The third paragraph begins with: "Aquinas begins his disputation on evil. . . "

PTypes - Pride

2005-05-25T10:03:00.000-07:00

"Pride is the excessive love of one's own excellence. It is ordinarily accounted one of the seven capital sins. St. Thomas, however, endorsing the appreciation of St. Gregory, considers it the queen of all vices, and puts vainglory in its place as one of the deadly sins" (Joseph F. Delany).

As "the queen of all vices" pride engenders personality disorder and the Personality Disorders

Summa Theologica Ia IIae, q. 2 a. 1-8

2005-05-23T09:40:00.000-07:00

St. Thomas Aquinas
The Summa Theologica
Of Those Things In Which Man's Happiness Consists (Eight Articles)

We have now to consider happiness: and (1) in what it consists; (2) what it is; (3) how we can obtain it.

Concerning the first there are eight points of inquiry:

(1) Whether happiness consists in wealth?

(2) Whether in honor?

(3) Whether in fame or glory?

(4) Whether in power?

(5) Whether in any good of the body?

(6) Whether in pleasure?

(7) Whether in any good of the soul?

(8) Whether in any created good?

PTypes and Thomas Aquinas

2005-05-21T08:44:00.000-07:00

PTypes' "Basic Passions" are analogous to Thomas Aquinas's "ends" which can not "quarantee human completion" (60).

One can see as a result of this discussion that the one good that corresponds to the universality of human striving is capable of achieving the completion of the person [Ia IIae, q. 2, a. 8]. At this point, Thomas concludes that only God can be the end of all humanity (60).

George Wieland. "Happiness (Ia IIae, qq. 1-5)." The Ethics of Aquinas. Ed. Stephen J. Pope. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2002.

Pathological Personality Types

2005-05-11T09:01:00.000-07:00

Tears In Rain makes a good point:

"Okay, THAT is me. PLUS, down at the bottom of the 'antisocial' page, there's a link to the non-pathological "Adventurous" type, which is also much more appropriate. So why aren't those links at the top of the page? Sheesh."

I'm going to try to do that.

Stoic Faith

2005-05-06T09:24:00.000-07:00

"I had the thought today that faith in the rationality and goodness of
Nature is the very essence of Stoicism.

"Secure knowledge of the rationality, and goodness of Nature is the
highest attainment of the Stoic Sage.

"Since the qualities of the Whole, like intelligence, rationality, and
goodness are unavailable to and unprovable by science,

"making progress in Stoicism requires faith in the rationality and
goodness of Nature."

Yahoo! Groups : stoics Messages : Message 8842 of 8922

Aristotle: Ethics and the Virtues

2005-02-28T09:42:00.000-08:00

"The central issue for Aristotle is the question of character or personality — what does it take for an individual human being to be a good person?"

"The Virtues and the Passions" -- St. Peter of Damaskos

2005-02-08T14:31:00.000-08:00

"St. Peter wrote a long and exhaustive list of the virtues and the passions which encompasses not only everyday passions and virtues, but the more specialized ones relating to ascetic practices and the monastic life. These two lists will apply to all of us, whether monk or layperson."

Articles by Paul T. P. Wong

2005-02-08T13:14:00.000-08:00

"INPM is an international, multidisciplinary, learned society founded by Paul T. P. Wong in 1998 to expand the legacy and vision of Dr. Viktor Frankl. It was incorporated as a non-profit organization with the Federal Government of Canada in 2001. INPM is non-partisan, non-religious and non-governmental, governed by a Board of Directors and an Executive Committee."

"INPM believes that high quality scientific research on positive psychology of meaning in major life domains can contribute significantly to the well-being of individuals and communities."

A Companion to the Summa

2005-01-29T08:11:00.000-08:00

"The Companion to the Summa is the most remarkable and successful attempt to put into modern English for a lay audience the essential arguments and insights of Aquinas' greatest work, the Summa theologiae. Fr. Farrell wrote almost sixty years ago, in the late 30's and early 40's, so we cannot fault him for the use of language that was acceptable at that time but might sound inappropriate today. His colorful and imaginative paraphrase deserves to be taken off the shelf and reviewed by all serious seekers of theological truth. In an age which looks upon the theology of the Catholic tradition as irrelevant to contemporary problems we leave it to your judgment to read and see if Aquinas, as mediated by the brilliant imagination of Fr. Walter Farrell, has a contribution to make."

Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics Book 2

2005-01-18T13:23:00.000-08:00

An annotated combined translation of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Book 2.

Translators:

Terence Irwin, Hackett Publishing Co. 1985
David Ross, Oxford University Press 1980
J.A.K. Thomson, Penguin Books 1955

Annotator:

George Irbe

Temperance (Sophrosyne) and the Canon of the Cardinal Virtues

2005-01-17T17:44:00.000-08:00

"The history of temperance is the history of sophros-
yne ( σωφροσγνη). The cardinal virtue of moderation,
self-knowledge, and self-restraint—sophrosyne in
Greek—took the Latin name temperantia in Cicero's
rhetorical and philosophical works, which set the style
for later usage in the West. Sophrosyne derives from
the adjective sophron (saophron in Homer): “of sound
mind”—used at first to describe a person (either human
or divine) who behaves in a way consistent with his
nature or station (like Apollo in Iliad 21. 462-64, when
he refuses to fight with another god on behalf of
“wretched mortals”) or who shows good sense, as op-
posed to frivolity or even witlessness (Odyssey 23.
11-13, 30)."

The Right Mean and Sophrosyne

2005-01-15T09:12:00.000-08:00

"In Greek Ethics, the doctrine of the Right Mean has been developed by Plato (Philebus) and Aristotle (Nic. Ethics II. 6-8) principally, on the Pythagorean analogy between the sound mind, the healthy body and the tuned string, which has inspired most of the Greek Moralists. Though it is known as the "Aristotelian Principle of the Mean", it is essentially a Platonic doctrine which is preformed in the Republic and the Statesman and expounded in the Philebus, where we are told that all good things in life belong to the class of the mixed (26 D). This doctrine states that in the application of intelligence to any kind of activity, the supreme wisdom is to know just where to stop, and to stop just there and nowhere else. Hence, the "right-mean" does not concern the quantitative measurement of magnitudes, but simply the qualitative comparison of values with respect to a standard which is the appropriate (prepon), the seasonable (kairos), the morally necessary (deon), or generally the moderate (metrion). The difference between these two kinds of metretics (metretike) is that the former is extrinsic and relative, while the latter is intrinsic and absolute. This explains the Platonic division of the sciences into two classes: those involving reference to relative quantities (mathematical or natural), and those requiring absolute values (ethics and aesthetics). The Aristotelian analysis of the "right mean" considers moral goodness as a fixed and habitual proportion in our appetitions and tempers, which can be reached by training them until they exhibit just the balance required by the right rule. This process of becoming good develops certain habits of virtues consisting in reasonable moderation where both excess and defect are avoided: the virtue of temperance (sophrosyne) is a typical example. In this sense, virtue occupies a middle position between extremes, and is said to be a mean; but it is not a static notion, as it leads to the development of a stable being, when man learns not to over-reach himself. This qualitative conception of the mean involves an adaptation of the agent, his conduct and his environment, similar to the harmony displayed in a work of art. Hence the aesthetic aspect of virtue, which is often overstressed by ancient and neo-pagan writers, at the expense of morality proper" (Runes, Dictionary of Philosophy).

Sophrosyne: The Lost Ideal

2005-01-12T11:07:00.000-08:00

"In classical Greece, sophrosyne (" soh-froh-soo'-neh ") referred to excellence of character and soundness of mind in a well-balanced individual. This complex ideal has no direct translation into English. Its roots suggest a bringing together (syne) of the qualities of wisdom (sophia)."

The Achievement of Alasdair MacIntyre

2004-12-17T13:15:00.000-08:00

"That word "teleological" is the key to MacIntyre's solution, the loss of which is the cause of the catastrophe described in his science-fiction parable. Teleology is the study of final causes, goals, purposes, and aims: a style of explanation that saturates Aristotle's philosophy. After the combined impact of Newton and Darwin, however, this type of explanation seems mostly quaint-and once Aristotle's science seemed quaint, his ethics soon followed: when Newton demonstrated how motion can be better explained as resulting from the outcome of mechanical laws, and when Darwin posited natural selection as the "mechanism" for explaining an organ's functionality, the use of teleology in ethics was doomed.

"This is perhaps the greatest category mistake ever made in the history of philosophy. Emptying moral discourse of teleological concepts because of the perceived impact of Newton and Darwin has been for MacIntyre the catastrophe of our times. In the Aristotelian tradition, MacIntyre argues, "there is a fundamental contrast between man-as-he- happens-to-be and man-as-he-could-be-if-he-realized-his-essential- nature. . . . The precepts which enjoin the various virtues and prohibit the vices instruct us how to move from potentiality to act, how to realize our true nature, and to reach our true end. To defy them will be to be frustrated and incomplete, to fail to achieve that good of rational happiness which it is peculiarly ours as a species to pursue.""

A9.com Search: alasdair.macintyre

Eighty-Five Character Disorders

2004-12-14T18:42:00.000-08:00

A nice pile of character weaknesses and vices.

Ethical Medical School Applicants?

2004-12-14T14:16:00.000-08:00

"The authors suggest that screening for character traits consistent with certain personality disorders is a reasonable step to take in medical school admissions."

"[T]he authors address character traits as indicators of the virtues associated with medicine. They cite a list of descriptors used by physicians to describe inappropriate behavior and attitudes observed in medical students, which includes "selfish," "amoral," "rude," "aggressive," "rigid," and "judgmental." The authors draw a link between these descriptors and traits listed in the psychiatric diagnosis of personality disorders. Since there is an overlap between DSM-IV criteria and moral judgments, the authors reject the movement to keep the two separate and conclude, ". . . we believe it is entirely appropriate to use some of the tools of psychiatry to investigate morality. A logical place to start is to screen applicants with standard questionnaires for the diagnosis of personality disorders.""

Some Strategies for Ethical Decision-Making

2004-12-13T13:46:00.000-08:00

7. Virtue ethics: What would a good person do in this situation? (Aristotle)

8. Duty ethics: What are the principles of duty involved in this situation? (Immanuel Kant?e.g., don?t lie; don?t steal, respect others)

9. Utilitarianism or greatest happiness principle: What decision will bring the most happiness to the most people? (Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill)

Virtue Ethics & Core Values

2004-12-13T13:30:00.000-08:00

"Only by choosing to be moral for no other reason than that it is the right thing to do can a young person begin the process of freely habituating the virtue. If he chooses the right thing, but that choice is attended by rewards or threats, or perhaps is graded by an instructor, or perhaps is viewed by his friends, then as Jesus said so long ago, "He has his reward." In other words, religious and military education environments tend to make it nearly impossible for their young people to freely choose virtuous activity, since every kind of action is legislated and every individual act is graded, evaluated, and noted. Thus, the opportunity to choose moral action for its own sake, for oneself, evaporates."

Can there be moral virtue with passion?

2004-12-13T11:56:00.000-08:00

Summa Theologica

"Objection 1. It would seem that moral virtue cannot be with passion. For the Philosopher says (Topic. iv) that "a gentle man is one who is not passionate; but a patient man is one who is passionate but does not give way." The same applies to all the moral virtues. Therefore all moral virtues are without passion."

Virtues - Resources for Catholic Educators

2004-12-13T11:06:00.000-08:00

A list of links to some very good essays.

Contra Virtue Theory

2004-12-13T10:29:00.000-08:00

'In his article, "Virtues and Vices," in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Bernard Williams states that there are a number of matters on which a modern account of the virtues would disagree with of Aristotle's classical account in the Nicomachean Ethics, one of which is their reality'.

What are the Virtues?

2004-12-13T10:26:00.000-08:00

The Virtues Project

"Virtues are the essence of the human spirit and the content of our character. In each of our books there are 52 virtues, some of which are unique to each book"

Metapsychology Online Book Reviews - Lack of Character

2004-12-11T10:16:00.000-08:00

"The main theme of Doris’s book is that character trait attribution relies on a common misunderstanding about character. If empirical psychology is right, we are prone to assign all sorts of character traits to others even on the thinnest thread of a single instance of behavior. So we should not be surprised to learn that empirical psychology tells us we usually err in character attribution. But we may be more reluctant to agree that even in the most durable of friendships and the longest of relationships we are wrong to suppose our friends and lovers have general character traits like honesty, reliability, impishness or friendliness. Doris argues that any sort of trait attribution is inaccurate, but not because we simply fail to understand what each others’ characters really are. Rather, character attribution will always fail because people do not have general character traits. All moral theory and all empirical psychology is simply erroneous if it presumes that persons possess characters: we lack character."

Moral Philosophy Meets Social Psychology

2004-12-11T10:04:00.000-08:00

Virtue Ethics and the Fundamental Attribution Error

"On this occasion I discuss a different kind of rejection of folk morality, one that derives from contemporary social psychology. It seems that ordinary attributions of character traits to people are often deeply misguided and it may even be the case that there is no such thing as character, no ordinary character traits of the sort people think there are, none of the usual moral virtues and vices."

Neo-Thomism

2004-12-09T13:21:00.000-08:00

"For reasons still not fully understood, a decided reaction against Aquinas and neoscholasticism occurred in the 1960s. Some have erroneously associated this with the Second Vatican Council, which turned people's minds toward social rather than doctrinal issues. Aquinas was, however, the only scholastic doctor mentioned by name in all the conciliar documents. The real reasons for the decline of neoscholasticism must be sought in the wider sociological and psychological concerns of contemporary society."

History and Systems of Psychology: Fall, 2004

2004-12-06T10:43:00.000-08:00

"Course Description

"This course is geared to students in training to be practicing clinical psychologists, who want to know how the history and systems of psychology relates to the clinical issues they will face. In the course of their training, these students will be exposed to the two basic theoretical orientations of CBT and psychodynamic psychology. Most probably they will choose one or another orientation as the basis for their own clinical work, or develop some eclectic synthesis of the two.

"The course is organized so as to help them understand and evaluate these two orientations. The course explores the classical roots of psychodynamic psychology is platonic philosophy, and the classical roots of CBT in Aristotelian philosophy. It shows how the scientific revolution and the European enlightenment transformed the classical philosophies into clinical theories.

"Two other secondary themes will be discussed throughout the course. The first is the relationship between reason and passion as it is conceptualized in Western thought. The second is the historical context in which these approaches were developed."

Big five & organizational virtue

2004-12-04T14:34:00.000-08:00

" Of course, there are a whole host of critics of the FFM largely on technical grounds (e.g., Block 1995, Eysenck 1993, McAdams 1992). The concern has also been voiced that the popularity of the FFM is due to a socio-political shift to the right (Comer 1993) since it posits character and not environment as the most important behavioral determinant. In any event, the impact of the FFM on the social sciences is undeniable (Digman 1989; McCrae, Costa, and Busch 1986). The central question for this paper is whether there is anything in this research stream that enlightens the subject of the virtues in business ethics."

An ingenuous account of the doctrine of the mean

2004-12-04T11:51:00.000-08:00

"The 'false doctrine of the mean', which Hursthouse attacks, is that to every virtue there correspond two and only two vices. It is clear that this is false: it should be no less clear that Aristotle does not hold it. On the contrary, he is inclined to say that to any virtue there will correspond a great number of vices; he insists that evil is manifold, for example at 1106b28-35:

'Again, it is possible to fail in many ways (for evil belongs to the class of the unlimited, as the Pythagoreans conjectured, and good to that of the limited), while to succeed is possible only in one way (for which reason also one is easy and the other difficult - to miss the mark easy, to hit it difficult); for these reasons, also, then, excess and defect are characteristic of vice, and the mean of virtue;

'For men are good in but one way, but bad in many.'"

Selected Criticisms of Aristotle's Ethics

2004-12-03T18:02:00.000-08:00

"as guidance about what is the good life, what precisely one ought to do, or even by what standard one should try to decide what one ought to do, this is too circular to be very helpful. And though Aristotle's account is filled out with detailed descriptions of many of the virtues, moral as well as intellectual, the air of indeterminacy persists. We learn the names of the pairs of contrary vices that contrast with each of the virtues, but very little about where or how to draw the dividing lines, where or how to fix the mean. As Sidgwick says, he "only indicates the whereabouts of virtue.""

The Characters of Theophrastos

2004-12-03T11:22:00.000-08:00

"Theophrastus (or Theophrast or Theophrastos) (371 or 372 -287/286) BC, born in Eresos on Lesbos, was a student of Aristotle and succeeded him as a director of the Lyceum in Athens. He took over the philosophy of Aristotle in parts reshaping, commenting, and developing it in an original way. His thinking leads to empirism by means of observation, collection, and classification. He was around 35 years the director of the Lyceum and he was a teacher of up to 2000 students."

On Alasdair MacIntyre's Idea of Virtue"

2004-11-24T18:00:00.000-08:00

"The central hypothesis of Alasdair MacIntyre's book "After Virtue" (Duckworth, 1981, 114-238) is that modern society (including most of academia) lacks any coherent and workable system of virtues or morality. In our society today, "[t]here seems to be no rational way of securing moral agreement." This is the case, argues MacIntyre, because differing and opposed moral arguments are grounded in irreconcilable premises. After detailing the history of Western systems of morality, MacIntyre discusses the Enlightenment's abandonment of Aristotelianism and the various attempts -- all failures, in his opinion -- to outline a feasible system of virtues."

A virtues approach to personality

2004-11-22T07:35:00.000-08:00

"Abstract

"The structure of virtue was investigated through the development and construct validation of the Virtues Scale (VS), a 140-item self-report measure of virtues. A factor analysis of responses from 390 participants revealed four factors: Empathy, Order, Resourcefulness, and Serenity. Four virtue subscales constructed from the highest loading items on each factor were correlated with the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R) scales in two additional samples (ns=181 and 143). One of these samples also completed the DIT measure of Kohlbergian moral development. Meaningful, replicated correlations between the virtue subscales and personality scales and complete lack of relationships between the virtues scales and the DIT indicate that virtue is a function of personality rather than moral
reasoning and cognitive development. # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved."

Stoicism - One School Amongst Many

2004-11-20T08:48:00.000-08:00

"I do believe that there is only one core truth, and that I would call the Way of Harmony - the core teaching of every true faith. I approach this Way of Harmony through the school of Stoicism, others through the school of Christianity, others through the school of Islam, the school of Buddhism, the school of Hinduism, and even the school of Scepticism to name but a few" (Nigel Glassburrow).

An Overview of the Virtues

2004-11-20T08:34:00.000-08:00

"As children grow from infancy to adulthood, they need to acquire certain character-strengths: sound judgment, a sense of responsibility, personal courage, and self-mastery. These habits of mind and will and heart have traditionally been called the virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. Children internalize these lifelong habits in three ways, and in this order:

"example: what they witness in the lives of parents and other adults whom they respect (and thus unconsciously imitate).

"directed practice: what they are repeatedly led to do, or are made to do, by parents and other respected adults.

"word: what they hear from parents and other respected adults as explanation for what they witness and are led to do."

Virtues Web Site

2004-11-17T09:25:00.000-08:00

"The Virtues Web Site provides information about our research program on a virtue-based psychology."

The Appeal of Psychological Type

2004-11-13T07:50:00.000-08:00

"I would personally argue that this belief [that personality types are
inborn and immutable] arises as a necessary consequence of the fundamental -- if somewhat unconscious -- aim of the modern Type Movement -- social activism. Its ultimate aim is >not< science or empiricism as such, but rather in offering up a positive "social mythology" that empowers its constituents. As such it >absolutely< requires type to be inborn and unalterable. To suggest otherwise would undercut its goal. Think about it -- solving other "isms" like racism and sexism requires an external inter-social solution since the individual obviously can't otherwise change his/her race or gender. By suggesting that typology is inborn and unchanging the modern type movement places type in the same category. The individual can't change. Therefore, the external world >MUST< change to fit the individual's needs. This is an immensely empowering idea -- for justice to prevail the whole world must change to fit the needs of the lone individual. However, that also makes it something of a trap. To suggest that perhaps type can be changed even in the smallest degree is to attack the modern type movement at its strongest point, that thing which makes it most appealing to its adherents" - Alan Hoch.

Annie Murphy Paul

2004-11-11T11:28:00.000-08:00

"Millions of Americans take personality tests each year: to get a job, to pursue an education, to settle a legal dispute, to better understand themselves and others. But where did these tests come from, and what are they saying about us? In The Cult of Personality, award-winning psychology writer Annie Murphy Paul reveals the surprising and disturbing story behind the tests that claim to capture human nature."

Bringing the Master Passions to Work

2004-10-31T14:21:00.000-08:00

"Ambition, envy, self-deception. These "master passions" are everywhere, say HBS professor Nitin Nohria and the University of Toronto's Mihnea C. Moldoveanu, co-authors of Master Passions: Emotion, Narrative, and the Development of Culture. In this excerpt, they describe what master passions mean for you."

Stoicism: Responsibility or Human Rights

2004-10-31T11:42:00.000-08:00

"My understanding is that Stoics are not interested in human rights. Rather they follow Socrates' concept of responsibility to society, he having accepted suicide as part of his responsibility as a citizen. His arguement was that he had accepted the protection and benefits of the Athenian State, and as such had to also accept its judgements even if he did not agree with them" (Nigel Glassburrow).

Stoicism and Human Rights

2004-10-27T09:50:00.000-07:00

"The result is that contemporary notions of human rights are not much more closely related to ancient Stoic ideas of natural law than, say modern notions of atoms that are divisible, penetrable, and convertible into energy are related to the indivisble, impenetrable, and internally unchanging atoms of Democritus and Epicturus" (Jan Garrett).

PTypes Typology (continued)

2004-09-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

>>Dave, I'm not an expert in personality research, but the first question that comes to mind is whether you have derived your types empirically (e.g., through factor analysis), or purely on conceptual grounds. If the latter, do you plan to validate your system empirically?<<

These types are based on 16 categories of personality disorder which either are official personality disorders listed in the Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders, or once were included or considered for inclusion, or they are currently being considered for inclusion - all but one.

14 of the personality disorders were featured in books by two leading personality disorder theorists: Theodore Millon and John Oldham. Oldham has popularized these concepts in The New Personality Self-Portrait where he derives 14 personality "styles" from the disorders. I use the names of Oldham's 14 personality styles in the representation of the typology that I linked to in my previous message and whenever it is inappropriate to use the personality disorder names, which are off-putting.

The American Psychiatric Assn. does what they can, I guess, to validate the personality disorder categories, but I, like others, do not consider them to be empirically verifiable scientific categories. The "factor analysis" psychological researchers believe that psychiatry's personality disorders should be defined by dimensional profile, like the Big Five, and not typologically as they are now. A proposal for use of the dimensional model is included in the current DSM, but I think that the psychiatrists are going to hold on to their types for quite a while. I like that prospect because I consider the personality disorders to be the state-of-the-art and the cutting-edge of personality typing.

I see the types as heuristic devices rather than empirically derived scientific categories.

PTypes Typology

2004-09-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

I've been working for quite a while on a typology of personality that I've tried to integrate with Stoic moral psychology. Here is a representation of the typology which I posted to a personality types board that I am a member of.

I've imagined that, typologically speaking, there are four primary motivations: superiority, power, belonging, and pleasure, which correspond to the classic four temperaments. The motivations would be considered rational when they are preferences, but irrational when they are desires.

"It's okay to prefer superiority, power, belonging, and pleasure, and to disprefer the lack of them; but for Stoics, it's not okay to desire, need, or delight in them, nor to fear, or be distressed by, the lack of them."

The metaphorical structure of Epictetus Encheiridion 1

2004-09-02T07:35:00.001-07:00

"It seems to me that there are at least two complex metaphors at work in this chapter, one that treats the self as property-owner, and the other that relates the Stoic subject to impressions as one person is related to a second person who is trying to persuade the first person to engage in some action of pursuit or avoidance. We could call this the impression as possible tempter metaphor" (Jan Garrett).

Excellent.

Stoicism and clinical depression

2004-08-25T10:23:00.000-07:00

"Chronic stress may arise when, for example, there is a loss of a loved one (spouse, son, etc.), when the person cannot find a job, when a person feels that there is nothing useful they can do, when a person moves to a place or city they dislike intensely and feel they can't get out of it, during sustained military conflict or imprisonment, and similar situations."

A Stoic approach to dealing with manipulators

2004-08-23T09:46:00.000-07:00

"I'm currently studying the problem of dealing with manipulative people. Harriet Braiker, in her book Who's_Pulling_Your_Strings?, takes a very Stoic approach to this problem, which everyone faces at times in their personal relations."

Injustice and Harm

2004-08-16T17:50:00.000-07:00

"The Stoic, when treated unjustly, recognises no harm to themselves, for the injustice causes harm to the agent" (Keith Seddon).

A Stoic meditation

2004-08-11T10:05:00.000-07:00

"Like Buddhists, Stoics also have a meditation technique, or exercise, which has as its goal peace of mind and rationality. Elen Buzare has written a paper, "Stoic Spiritual Exercises" which includes a representation of this meditation technique, which Pierre Hadot calls the fundamental spiritual exercise of Stoicism."

Epictetus [Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]

2004-08-09T08:52:00.000-07:00

"The key to transforming oneself into the Stoic sophos (wise person) is to learn what is ‘in one’s power’, and this is ‘the correct use of impressions’ (phantasiai), which in outline involves not judging as good or bad anything that appears to one."

PHILOSOPHY 12: POST 2: EPICURUS VS EPICTETUS

2004-07-22T12:26:00.000-07:00

"the idea of will in epictetus' ethical theory is then significant, since he considers events to be of two different kinds; the first one being events that are within our power and the other one being those beyond our power."

Analytic meditation

2004-06-30T09:24:00.000-07:00

'"The second step of thinking or reflecting on the teachings also includes analytic or checking meditation. Although we call it checking meditation, and it is meditation, it actually falls into this second step of thinking or reflecting on the meaning of the teachings. Analytic meditation does not mean just an intellectual process; we are really trying to take what we have learned through hearing and make it our own."'

Socrates: Weakness of will denied

2004-06-14T08:17:00.000-07:00

Stoicism's unitary, or monistic, psychology has its roots in Socratic ideas.

"In fact, during Hellenistic times it was the Socratic, 'unitary' psychology of action that carried the day; the Platonic-Aristotelian alternative, dominant in the 'common sense' and the philosophy of modern times, was a minority view. The issues Socrates raised about weakness of will continue to be debated today." -- John M. Cooper, "Socrates," Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Stoicism's monistic psychology

2004-06-12T12:58:00.000-07:00

"I would add to a list of things that cannot be altered without it
ceasing to be Stoic Stoicism's unique and fundamental monistic
psychology. The Stoics rejected Plato's tripartite soul wherein the
self is divided into rational, appetitive, and competitive faculties.
They theorized a unitary rational commanding-faculty.

We are responsible for the state of our reason and, thus, for our
passions (L&S pg. 65). Stoicism's monistic psychology is absolutely necessary as a basis for the Stoic theories of passion and moral responsibility (L&S pp. 421-23)" (Stoics).

"Orhodox Stoicism" / "Classical Stoicism"

2004-06-11T07:58:00.000-07:00

Jan Garrett is Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy and Religion, Western Kentucky University, and Co-Moderator of the International Stoic Forum.

Google Search: define: stoicism

2004-05-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

an indifference to pleasure or pain
(philosophy) the philosophical system of the Stoics following the teachings of the ancient Greek philosopher Zeno
A philosophical doctrine developed by the Greeks that taught people to live in conformity to the natural order of the cosmos; this meant peacefully accepting one’s duties and responsibilities even if such acceptance involved great personal pain and sacrifice.
The idea that true virtue or excellence lies in not being affected by outside events and in not experiencing passions or emotions; impossible to attain, but still the natural human state of living according to reason.
the principle or practice of showing indifference to pleasure or pain.
was the doctrine of a Greek school of philosophy known as the Stoics. This group taught that human beings should be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, and submissive to natural law, calmly accepting all things as the result of divine will. It is a Greek pagan version of the Islamic, Kismet, "what ever will be, will be."
A development from Cynicism. Unlike Cynics, Stoics accept the ideas of society and social duty, and also argue that while external goods (health, friendship, money etc.) are not essential for happiness, they are still preferable to external evils (sickness, enmity, poverty etc.)..
A Greek philosophy that became popular among the upper classes in Roman times, Stoicism emphasized duty, endurance, self-control, and service to the gods, the family, and the state. Its adherents believed in the soul's immortality, rewards, and punishments after death, and in a divine force (providence) that directs human destiny. Paul encountered Stoics when preaching in Athens (Acts 17:18-34), and Stoic ideas appear in Ecclesiastes, the Wisdom of Solomon, Proverbs, John 4:23 and 5:30, James 1:10, and 1 Peter 2:17.
belief that one should live according to providence/fortune/destiny and accept one's fate with indifference or, in the case of extreme hardship, with courage

A Conversation with Tony Long

2004-05-19T18:39:00.000-07:00

Let's talk about using Epictetus as a guide to a happy life. What is happiness for him?

"He has the notion of happiness not as one's momentary, elated mood, but the kind of happiness we would talk about in saying of somebody: "He had a happy life," or "She lived well." Epictetus believes that happiness, really feeling good about yourself, simply cannot be grounded in a life that does not have real moral worth. He's talking not only about mental health but about moral health--or about both: mental-moral health.

"This, he believes, is the central ingredient in your flourishing, in your happiness. The idea of being happy by having mental-moral health means that you are not going to be pulled one way by, say, self-interest, and another by "duty." Because, if you properly understand your self-interest, you will see that it is not inconsistent with the ethically appropriate thing to do, but quite the opposite. They actually coincide.

"Now, if you think that putting down your brother or cheating your neighbor is in your self-interest, there's an end to morality. But if self-interest actually involves behaving decently to your brother and not cheating your neighbor, then self-interest and morality are preserved. You don't give up self-interest; the self-interest itself absorbs the moral.

"This may seem counter-intuitive at first. But that is his way of trying to get us to see that the mental-moral health he's recommending we strive for is a really wonderful, beautiful thing. If we could only grasp this, we would see that it's actually profitable to us; it's not just a case of doing our duty for duty's sake, but a way of actually making us flourish as human beings."

The desire for knowledge

2004-05-17T11:21:00.000-07:00

"None strive to grasp what they already know"

"There is often chaos in the world, and the love of knowledge is ever at the bottom of it. For all men strive to grasp what they do not know, while none strive to grasp what they already know....Thus, above, the splendor of the heavenly bodies is dimmed; below, the power of the land and water is burnt up, while in between the influence of the four seasons is upset. There is not one tiny worm that moves on earth or an insect that flies in the air but has lost its original nature. Such indeed is the world chaos caused by the desire for knowledge!"

Chuang-tzu, The Wisdom of Laotse, trans. and ed. Lin Yutang (New York: Modern Library, 1976), p. 287.

2004-05-14T10:12:00.000-07:00

The Stoics do not consider remorse for guilt an appropriate moral sentiment (see below), as we have learned to do in our Judeo-Christian culture. According to Eric Dodds, writing in a chapter of his The Greeks and the Irrational [via rougeclassicism], "From Shame-Culture to Guilt-Culture," a sense of religious guilt appears only late in the Classical period.

"Strictly speaking, the archaic sense of guilt becomes a sense of sin only as a result of what Kardiner [45] calls the "internalising" of conscience—a phenomenon which appears late and uncertainly in the Hellenic world, and does not become common until long after secular law began to recognize the importance of motive [46]" (36-7).

[46] "[...] It is, I think, significant that side by side with the old objective words for religious guilt ([agos, miasma]) we meet for the first time in the later years of the fifth century a term for the consciousness of such guilt (whether as a scruple about incurring it or as remorse for guilt already incurred). This term is [enthumion] (or [enthumia], Thuc. 5.16.1), a word long in use to describe anything "weighing on one's spirits," but used by Herodotus, Thucydides, Antiphon, Sophocles, and Euripides with specific reference to the sense of religious guilt (Wilamowitz on Heracles 722; Hatch, Harv. Stud. in Class. Phil. 19.172 ff.). The specific usage is practically confined to this particular period; it vanished, as Wilamowitz says, with the decline of the old beliefs" (55).

In Liddell & Scott's A Greek-English Lexicon (1968, pg. 567) I found citations of the works of the authors that Dodds refers to where [enthumion] is being used . The term "guilt" is not the translation, there, but that seems to be the meaning intended, or very close to it.

2004-05-14T08:24:00.003-07:00

Early Indo-European Languages Online [via dappled things]

"Classical Greek Online, likewise, is designed to teach you to read classical Greek texts or to improve your reading knowledge. New Testament Greek Online includes some of the central N.T. passages; it is designed like Greek Online. These consist in each case of: an introduction to the series; ten texts, each with a brief introduction identifying its author and the document from which it was taken; and a single master glossary spanning the lesson series."