16. Stoicism

we are talking about the Stoics the founder of stoicism is generally regarded as who founder is Nicole Zeno obsidium the word stoic derives from what Stephen which means porch I've always thought that be kind of a cool place to teach from this long porch you just walk up and down in flowing robes like I think we should wear fly like I could get into flowing ropes you know it's more flattering to your physique you know it's just you just that's really I could see it but be that as it may that's where the term comes from it's one of the few philosophies that was not named for its founder we have Platonism we have Aristotelian ISM we have Epicureanism we have a ton of isms named for the founders but in the case of Z no it's not Zeno ism it's stoicism so I don't know how that happened exactly but that's the way it is we're working through fundamental features of stoicism in the first one that I gave you is the notion of clear judgment even though Zeno was a Greek what nationality probably embraced stoicism more famously than any other who are the most famous Stoics in the history of the world strangely it's not Greeks but who is it the most famous Stoics turned out to be but you know got a guess then well they would still be Greeks today the Romans the Romans and really some of the greatest stoic philosophers were Roman so even though it started as a Greek movement it became very much more conspicuously Roman who are some of the most famous Roman Stoics their names you know most famous Stoics that were Roman Spencer Julius Caesar had a lot of stoic qualities for sure most of the most of the really important and famous military figures in Rome were very stoic in their outlook but he was not a stoic philosopher these are these are actual philosophers Sydnee Cicero has a lot of Stoicism in him and I would I would put him in a second list he's a philosopher and he has a lot of stoicism and some people would say yeah he was a stoic philosopher I would say not quite but you've got an awful lot of Stoicism in and that's a good anybody else who was one of those famous tutors to Nero a man who eventually had to die by self-inflicted which is what it always is suicide you know sort of true by definition but it was self-inflicted suicide for devan's well but who was it who was one of the most famous tutors to Nero in the early years of Nero's reign when he was still you know slightly sensible before he went totally bonkers and the name is Savannah no the name of Seneca Seneca stoic philosopher there was one Roman Emperor who is probably as famous for being a stoic philosopher as he is for being a Roman Emperor and his name is Jacob Marcus Aurelius there's another lesser-known I don't know that you'll know this name but it's well-known in philosophical conversation a pick Titus who was writing about the beginning of the second century many people think he may have been personally acquainted with the Apostle Paul because much of his writing reflects a little bit of a what you call a Pauline influence but he was more of a stoic philosopher who's not a Christian but you have that little trace of what appears to be Paul's influence there and others but that simply makes the point all of these guys were concerned about first and foremost reaching a philosophy of clear judgment and they mean that in a practical sense remember stoicism is a practical philosophy it's not trying to answer big questions about the huge you know platonic concerns of an ideal world and all of that but it's very concerned about just how do I get through life in a sensible fashion and for the Stoics the answer is you always exercise your best rational faculties you're never swept away by your emotions by your passions your lusts your desires all of those things have to be put into some kind of disciplined place and you let Reason guide you the second term that shows up is disciplined these are all by the way related you're going to see a little bit of overlap as we go along but the idea is that you discipline your life meaning you create life disciplines that guide you through each day you don't just let yourself be carried along by whims you know that kind of spontaneous unpredictable usually irrational impulse that tends to gravis intends to be the case of most human beings that we are victimized by our passing fancies little things that just kind of catch us oh that looks like a good idea and you suspend whatever good thing you're doing and run off on a little as they called it in law school frolic and detour you know from what you're supposed to be doing that kind of thing discipline it's been noted many times by the way that you know there's a lot in common between the Christian ethic and stoicism and some people have actually argued that the Christians got it from the Stoics that's not true but I just want you to realize there's a there's a certain amount of common ground here that you'll probably recognize the third one is reason for the stoic reason does not simply mean the use of logic but it was involved with what they considered to be the process of nature they thought life has a kind of natural process to it and you need to get in step with that so they are the great champions in the ancient world of what's sometimes called natural law which by the way Sydney was very important to Cicero and that's part of what gets some people interested in seeing stoicism in Cicero Cicero was a great champion of the notion of natural law that there are certain ways that we should live that are just dictated by nature and you can see it as you look at life you just notice that people tend to live by certain rules and when they depart from those rules we all sort of sense that they've taken you know a frolic or detour they've gone off the rails they've gone in a bad direction so let me ask you are you aware of anything in the New Testament that would stand for the idea that there is a natural law and the people just sort of intuitively follow well I thought your hand was in the air no Jacob just sitting there in a state of deep and I thought he was trying to ask those anybody know is there anything in the New Testament Josiah can you think of anything in the New Testament that would stand for the proposition that there is a kind of natural law by which we sort of intuitively or instinctively not as Christians but just as human beings that we live our lives any text at all anything you can raise here would be fair game can you think of anything that I'd meet that criterion that's pretty good place to go yeah sure yeah okay that's good is there anything you can think of it's more precise than that that's a good play that's a good text and you could kind of broadly say that suggests a knowledge of God and at least inferentially of God's ways God's why anything no no just all right listen to this text this is in Romans two beginning about verse 12 listen to what Paul says you've all heard this I assume but listen to it in this connection when the gentiles who do not have god's law do by nature the things of the law they show the work of the law written in their hearts their conscience is busy accusing others as they excuse themselves did you see that and that interesting is the Apostle Paul now some people have accused Paul of being stoic there you get these critical scholars to say ah Paul you know borrowing from the Stoics and so on but I think you could say from a Christian point of view there is an idea that God has planted in the human heart a sense of his law it's there by what we call general revelation and it does represent a kind of natural law it's very interesting how many of you know the name Clarence Thomas thank you who is Clarence Thomas ha ha ha Avery say don't call on me who is Clarence Thomas you all know the name Josiah who's Clarence Thomas that's right he's the United States Supreme Court justice his his nomination was very controversial it's back a little before your time quite controversial because Clarence Thomas is a black man but he's also a strong conservative you know and usually you don't get those in the same package at those levels of academics and so there was a put the sent in a very ticklish position they didn't want they didn't want Clarence Thomas because he was a conservative but they couldn't they couldn't go after him too viciously because he was black you know you see how tough that is because he going to come off racist this back in the 80s and they were trying to find something to go after this guy about and one of the first things Robert I'm sorry Clarence Thomas said when he was interviewed by the press he was asked this question it was a trick question it was a setup question the question was put to Clarence Thomas do you believe in natural law and Clarence Thomas said of course you know and the press just went crazy and Teddy Kennedy went crazy and all of these people cook this man believes an actual war can you believe that that's horrible you know like we're gonna have a guy on the Supreme Court that actually believes in natural law what a what a you know absolutely outrageous thing that could be because natural law has become an idea that stands for the notion that there are absolutes by which we're supposed to live our lives and you my children live in the age of relativism and we don't want our lawyer and our judges believing that there is actual absolute moral truth by which you're supposed to live your lives and so everybody just went crazy and that was getting a lot of press the odd thing was of course that here you've got a judge who's going to take the position on the US Supreme Court and the most controversial thing that he can say is that he believes in moral absolutes that's a little scary isn't it isn't that kind of alarm you a little bit and it hasn't gotten any better of course this whole thing if you I don't know do you know what came in after this that really became much more much much more prominently discussed in the press than his statement about natural law this was this was before your time there was a lady that came in named Anita Hill and she claimed that Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her years earlier when she had worked for him in a law office and the press really went crazy over that one so then it was it was just the you know this was daily on c-span and I mean it was just in all the papers everything and the whole thing became quite a circus that Clarence Thomas was he did survive the storm he was eventually placed on the US Supreme Court has served my opinion admirably in spite of that and he's always felt with that that whole thing which was just bogus you know from the start was just to sort of impair him throughout his career and he's always had to carry that that kind of stigma that he had that accusation there but any natural law goes back to the starts also arguably goes back to Paul and may go back much deeper than that number four the starts were committed to virtue virtue they believed that if you live your life according to natural law you're going to live a virtuous life and they really made famous what are called the four cardinal virtues I wonder if you ever come across these do you know these the four cardinal virtues these are not distinctively stoic you can find them in Ariston you can find them earlier they've been around but these are these are regarded as the virtues that you would uncover by reflecting on natural law okay and there's four of them and yes you do need to know them there are eight things of stoicism and none of them has four sub points but I'm not worried about you because you're very smart and able to get this stuff huh and of course I realized that there you have some other trivial classes that you take around this place this is the only course that matters right I mean we all agree on this don't we this is the only class that matters and so uh anyway have you ever came across the four cardinal virtues I actually mentioned these to you briefly last year in ethics and I said you know some probably's wasn't bad next year we'll come back to these and all of you were half asleep then didn't catch that but here we are as advertised back to the core four cardinal virtues anybody know what they are and you know any any of them can you name any of the four cardinal virtues okay you've got to know these yes Josiah okay that's good those three are usually added to these as the virtues that come by revelation so if I could put it this way there's virtues that come by reason and virtues that come by revelation that's been the classic Christian understanding faith hope and love have basically been understood as those things that we gain by God's revealed truth but we could actually figure these out based strictly on reason so it's not those three but that's a great answer anything else come to mind ten points is one of them ah temperance it's the last one it's an easy by the way not know what is Temperance why the Rachel saw what does that word mean okay little moderation so the the idea is here it's fine to enjoy things but don't let anything take over your life you know yes prudence is not one of them but it's awfully close to the first one which is usually placed as wisdom and I've actually heard a previous used instead so I yeah it's it's I would prefer the word wisdom here but you will hear that word use prudence courage so you probably learned the same list with slightly different terms then courage fortitude fortitude you'll hear just as often as courage and run at all then magnanimity is as not it that does that's an important one but it is a part of these cardinal virtues but that idea of being generous okay the third one is justice justice the four cardinal virtues wisdom courage trolling your fear justice which stands generally for integrity saying what you mean meaning which say truthfulness so on and temperance a kind of moderation in life so you're never given over in extremes twenty one thing okay next is the emphasis on I'll just put it on knowledge I'm going to put it that way that's not not the very best word but there's not any good English words it's much better the Stoics believed that this is really more the point the Stoics believed that unhappiness and evil in the world are the direct result of ignorance they believe that crime that vice bloodshed bad behavior all of these things flow from ignorant and that if we could just educate people sufficiently we would rid the world of all of these awful things and so they were one of the earliest advocates of universal education they believed that everybody should be educated and that if you could just get everybody to read and write and get a you know tray to train them in good solid educational stuff that you would find crime rates would drop you would find behavior would improve that we're all live better lives and be better people and what do you think is there any truth to that Kaylie what do you think is there any truth to that yeah all right see good Christian answer Christians don't disagree with that we are for education everywhere that the Christian Church is gone it has among other things built schools you know we believe people should be able to read and write do we believe that education Matthew fixes the condition of the human heart no what do we think about education what why does it have this this value what's the value of it this is the yes for us this is our job okay sure the student here yeah okay that's right Jordan what is the purpose of Education Matthews given a good answer I want you to see if you can supplement it at all what why why bother I mean hey after all we all know there are video games at home waiting languishing for your attention and here you are in a class getting educated why that's right so you can go get a good job and make a lot of money and buy more video games of course I don't know why I didn't see that Thank You Jordan for that helpful clarification then why are you bothering getting educated besides your this sounds great alright okay that is that's wonderful it's all over my head though my son I still need that bother getting educated it's it's a little too deep for me why are we bothering without using matrix metaphors not that it's bad I like matrix too but why hey Krista why bother good and why does that matter why should we why should we have wisdom who cares go ahead there's a simple answer to this do you know there's a simple answer to this there really is and it's the correct answer I may have what's what is it Cindy that's certainly true that's certainly true you so hopefully we can worship God more intelligently and thoughtfully by virtue of this why would you go and get educated in the fine art of fixing an automobile why would you do that I know there's kind of an obvious answer you might think of I'm looking for something a little more Christian why might you go Stephen and get educated in the fine art of fixing automobiles route to mobile a as they see in Italia and the answer would be people have cards and need them to be fixed and now put a Christian ethic in the middle of that answer what's the answer you would learn a skill any skill so that you could what help others serve you know listen listen to me my friends you are Christians in order to serve that's why you're a Christian not the only reason but fundamental reason you are out there to serve Jesus highlights that constantly doesn't he in his teaching he that would be greatest among you let him be what servant of a your servants I'm a servant that's all I am I'm a servant I'm here at this moment trying to serve you an education simply helps you be a better servant an educated person can serve more more meaningfully than an uneducated person do not view your education as the key to getting more money you know bigger house are gonna may do that that's fine I'm not saying that's a bad thing everything you learn in every class you take you should be filtering that in this question how can I use this to serve others or who can I serve today with what I just gained for mr pallemans class or mister you know even mr. Gore's class how can I serve somebody with this and that you see from the Christian point of view is the hoisin we get excited about knowledge that's why we bill school some say you know Christian parents you should send your kids here it's because we want you to have that capacity right so again we say the Stoics we're on the right track we don't dislike these guys in the broader scheme of things they didn't you know we like that a lot better than the Epicureans to be honest with you we even see some things in epicureanism that we don't object to but in the Stoics we actually see some things that that are helpful that we would say of course they in a sense just don't go far enough all right next one the steroids made heavy use of the Greek word logos and that of course is a term that you've all come across so what is logos what is that word mr. an said give us a little elaboration of the significance of the word logos yes and rhetoric then read certainly it's the spoken word correct it's good start anything else you want to say koe it's a scale in Moscow thank you great anything else okay and what else Megan what else does the word logos suggest to us the basic bullet markets basically what the entire thesis author is saying so it's the basic truth of the entire it is that absolutely so you have that rhetorical use of it from Aristotle logos pathos ethos and low vassals the logic of it or a Christian point of view why do we kind of get excited about the word logos ms Greek scholar Sydney what is it okay okay so we as Christians say that there is a principle at the heart of things by which these things operate it is the principle that gives meaning and coherence to everything and it is the logos by him all things consist we say the Lord God is a person you know but the story again had a similar idea and it goes all the way back to Heraclitus that there is a rationality or coherency principle in things and that that coherency principle and things is something we need to be aware of and and in some ways we have it in each of us that would be a stoic idea thus notes again have a good concept they go a little bit of a bad direction with it because they actually speak of what they call the logos for mana costs I won't test you on that but for the Super students who want to make a note of that logos spermatic costs the seed word which they also conceived of as fire and so the Stoics gave us the idea that in every human being there is a spark of the divine isn't that sweet what do you think of that Avery doesn't that sound like a good kind of Christian idea in every human being there's a spark of the divine what do you think of that would you agree with that statement I think it's no good heavens you know if there's not a spark of the Divine in each of us that statement have you ever heard that before anybody you know you get all of that and sort of New Age stuff and everybody there's a spark in the divine so what do you think of that they get you all excited as a Christian no don't like it very much and why not my dear why do you have such a negative attitude in here don't like it very much yeah yeah okay the Christian faith stands for the idea that we don't have a spark we don't have a smoky Ember we don't have a whisk of divinity in us you know there is no divinity in any of us we are creature God is creator and there's a radical difference between them God may inhabit us as Avery was saying through the Holy Spirit but that's a very different thing from saying that and every one of us is a spark of the divine as if you're a little bit of a god and that was the story idea so the stairs on this one we like their logos idea we agreed that there is this great principle of coherence when they start saying that we have it in each one of us and that this is sort of our great dignity as spark of the Divine within us we get a little bit uneasy to that a little bit of pantheism their seventh stoicism was a way of life if you're a stoic you're a stoic 24/7 it wasn't like you just went to the temple and did a little religious ritual and then went home and you know did something else you are constantly in every moment of your life a stoic it is shot through your total understanding of who you are it's a way of life question over here was that use Josiah yeah how would how directa says an excellent question you've on the one hand the clear biblical teaching that we are created in the image of God and on the other hand a repudiation of the idea that there's a spark of the divine in every one of us at least I'm making that statement can we reconcile those two you know if you want to try give it a go there is I think there's a way to reconcile them how would we do it like it's not like you made okay and I think that's what the states were aware of I think they were they were sensing that that there's something distinctly dignified about the human species and they didn't know any other way to say it than a spark of the divine and so I'm I'm reading rejecting that but the grant is sympathetically that they're on to something and I think what they're on to is this inaugural day now how do we distinguish that how do we say there's not a spark of divine divinity in a spot we are created in the image of God anyone wanted to put that together how would we do that how do we allow that we're created in the image of God thought we don't want to go down the road if there's a spark of the divine because remember what the spark of the divine is saying is that you are a little bit of a god that's the point there's a little bit of deity in you you see that's what we don't like we say as Christians I've got zero deity in me I'm not any kind of God I'm just a creature I'm an ant I'm a worm I'm just a little tiny speck of dust before God don't insult the deity by calling me anything like define okay but we're in the image of God come on you theologians in here how you gonna put that together zero hands in the air please I like that and I'd go just when the terms of metaphors I'd take it one step further where do you see an image with the term image is most commonly associated with what kind of device where do you typically see an image every one of you has used one of these devices today and it is what where do you see an image you see it in a mirror now don't you this head you haven't use well we can tell you know you look at a you look in a mirror and you see what an image of yourself and you might actually say in a loose moment look there I am in that mirror but we all know you're not really in the mirror right we know there's no part of you in that mirror you do not exist in that mirror at all not a bit it is an inanimate object it is not alive it's just a device but it's really good at reflecting your image and I think that's you know again I don't want to push this too far but I think that's pretty close to the biblical idea we all with open face viewing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are transformed into the same image paul says second Corinthians 3:18 right we're reflecting his glory we can reflect the glory of glory of God in a way that a giraffe cannot that doesn't make me God but it means that somehow you can look at a human being and see something of God's reflection and that's our great dicta does that make sense that that would be the difference between a stoic view of this notion and a Christian view the the mirror doesn't become human because you see your face in the mirror it's still just a mirror you know it's lifeless but it's very good and reflective and that's what we did we reflects the glory of thought assumptions okay last one I bring up the Stoics were the first ancient Cosmopolitan's Joseph what do I mean when I say somebody is cosmopolitan anytime you walk through a supermarket and you go through the checkout stand you see a magazine cover there and you do not look at it warning to young men do not look at the cover but you see you know that you're dull there's a magazine there and it's called Cosmopolitan right what is it what does it mean a cosmopolitan you're pretty close right yeah I wasn't mean Matthew Reza mean to be cosmopolitan does that mean it could be modern media certainly as a popular term these days but that's not its technical sense okay Jacob what does it mean to be cosmopolitan you don't know anybody's gonna see you you spend what is the word Cosmo Cosmo is a route that basically means what the cosmos would be avery the world and the polis is what the city so a cosmopolitan is one for whom what the world is his city he's a citizen of nowhere he's as much concerned about China as America he has not no national identity at least in theory no patriotism no commitment to local concerns he's a citizen of the world he is a globalist right never thought about that that's kind of a popular idea these days isn't it we live in a global you know this and that well the yes states are the first people ever come along who really just commit themselves to a cosmopolitan politic and ethic and so on they don't think it's distinct to be Greek you know they're just kind of citizens of the world Avery no no no that's a guess is very good I know what you're gonna ask me and I want to congratulate you because you put that together so fast I'm impressed but go ahead ask the question that's exactly right they were very Roman yeah yeah and this is the point where the Romans are less stoic than the original Stoics Avery it's an excellent and that's very good you put that together that quickly I'm quite impressed means you're paying attention which is very impressive because sometimes sometimes I feel like you know I be like sometimes I feel like this is you and me man because kind of like yeah so everybody else gets the insult you got the compliment area but anyway sorry I know you're all listening I realize that I'm doing a bad time but this is this is a point where the Romans were not quite as stoic as others they did believe in the distinctiveness of Romanist but even the Romans Avery even the Romans had a vastly more cosmopolitan outlook than say the Greeks did or the series or others because remember the Romans were willing to let anybody in you know they it was the Roman Republic and they would conquer people but oddly enough if you didn't put up a fuss they would actually just say welcome to the club you can buy citizenship you can buy you know so they even they had a kind of Cosmopolitan spirit to them even though you talk to Julius Caesar he would have been all over that I'm a Roman he was very proud of that but but in their official outlook they had that kind of more of a cosmopolitan I mean if you resisted them then they come and pound you into dust but if you said hey sure we'll play ball great welcome to the party and so yeah there's a little bit of bouncing anyway I do want to know those does you know about stoicism I ought to say but I'm not going to I had some quotes let me give you a couple of the quotes these are typical I'll never test you on these just to get a flavor of the kind of things storts would say Seneca said quote the point is not how long you live but how nobly you live that's a very typical kind of stoic outlook Seneca said this that which fortune has not given she cannot take away that's what that's a court of all that witch fortune has not given she cannot take away fortune may give you you know by pure accident some great benefit you know but of course anything fortune gave you anything good luck gave you bad luck can take away simple as that Seneca said virtue is nothing else than right reason the stores were good at these little one-liners that sort of you know they have some value to them I picked it to said quote wherever I go there I am wherever I go it will be well with me here's a quite typical stock one that I'll leave you with freedom is not secured by the fulfilling of one's desires but by the removal of desire ooh interesting a little touch of Buddhism in that one where are my friends are either Chi

Channel: Bruce Gore

Views: 8,182

Rating: 4.7355371 out of 5

Keywords: Stoics Zeno Marcus Aurelius Bruce Gore Stoicism Seneca

Id: M8tNHL-9ZXU

Length: 48min 8sec (2888 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 22 2015

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[u/5960312]

Lecture Notes:

• Stoicism is a practical philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium c. 300 BC.

• Alternatively Stoicism could have been called Zenoism

• Stoa means porch in Greek (stoʊə)

• Stoic Themes: Clear Judgment; Discipline; Reason (Natural Law); Virtues: The Four Cardinal Virtues (Wisdom [Prudence], Courage [Fortitude], Justice [Integrity], Temperance [Moderation]); Knowledge (Education); Way of Life; Cosmopolitan (Global)

• The common misconception that Christian philosophy comes from Stoicism is untrue

• "Natural Law has become an idea that stands for the notion that there are [moral] absolutes by which we're supposed to live our lives."

• The Stoics believed that unhappiness and evil are the direct result of ignorance.

• "An education helps you be a better servant. An education person can serve more meaningfully than an uneducated person" [in the Christian worldview].

• The Stoics gave us the idea that "in every human being there is a spark of the divine" [logos spermatikos/λόγος σπερματικός]

• Prof. Gore goes discusses the Christian notion of being "Created in His image" and contrasts it with the Stoic notion that "in every human being there is a spark of the divine." The premise of his argument is that pantheism and monotheism are irreconcilable.

• Prof. Gore doesn't reject Stoicism in its entirety inasmuch as he disagrees with the concept of "logos spermatikos" on theological grounds.

• The Stoics were the first ancient Cosmopolitans ["From the Greek κοσμοπολίτης, or kosmopolitês, formed from "κόσμος", kosmos, i.e. "world", "universe", or "cosmos", and πολίτης, "politês", i.e. "citizen" or "[one] of a city".]

[u/ragica]

The youtube post provides no context. It would appear Bruce W. Gore, M.A., J.D. is an adjunct professor at a private Christian liberal arts college (so I assume that's where these videos originate), and a teacher at his Presbyterian church in Washington.

Well this prof certainly has a particular perspective. I'm afraid I had to give up on him when he went off on his digression basically reiterating the standard conservative talking points on the Clarence Thomas "controversy". So, naturally, that being his authoritatively presented perspective, he feels the need to say he feels Clarence Thomas work is admirable. This pretty much summarises the level of insight in the lecture up to that point.

If interested in the philosophy of Stoicism (as it relates to Christianity, or not), you might want to check out Gregory B. Sadler's quite accessible lecture series on the topic.