stoic philosophy | Reflections on Morality, Philosophy, and History

Do Not Steal: Dr Laura and Her Rabbi Stewart Vogel on Ten Commandments, and Excuses People Make

Do Not Steal and Excuses People Make: Dr Laura and Her Rabbi Stewart Vogel on Ten Commandments

Dr Laura opens this reflection: “People spend a lot of time redefining stealing in order to increase their comfort zone as they assert themselves in a world of needs, wants, possessions, power struggles, fame, fortune, desire, envy, loss, hurt, greed, and antisocial personalities.” This observation implies that many people steal because they feel that they are being taken advantage of, or they themselves were the target of loss, hurt, and greed, and they want to get even with the world, though she does not develop this thought in depth. […]

Modern Stoic Philosophers: My Favorite Maxims: Viktor Frankl, Nelson Mandela, and Others

Bruce Strom 0

Why don’t the Roman Stoics discuss justice as much as Plato? In the direct Radical Democracy of Athens, the citizens served on the juries and passed the laws, which meant that ordinary citizens participated in rendering justice. This is why Socrates sought to educate ordinary citizens on justice. But in the Roman Empire, the totalitarian Emperors and their servants were responsible for the administration of justice, the ordinary citizens no longer directly influenced the administration of justice. But that is not the case in modern America and most democracies, many ordinary citizens serve on juries and vote for many political officials, local and national. Justice should be our concern.
You can make a strong argument that Stoicism, like Judaism and Christianity, is founded on the two-fold Love of God and neighbor, that you should Love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Plus, we have the St Maximus the Confessor corollary, that we should be eager to forgive our neighbor. […]

Greek Stoic and Cynic Philosophers: My Favorite Sayings

Greek Stoic and Cynic Philosophers: My Favorite Maxims: Heraclitus, Antisthenes, Diogenes, and Zeno

Bruce Strom 1

Diogenes was an exile in Athens who wanted to study under Antisthenes. Although Antisthenes threatened him with his staff, Diogenes was obstinate, he wanted to be his student, he shouted, “Strike, for you’ll not find wood hard enough to keep me away from you, as long as I think you have something to say.”
Diogenes noticed a mouse scurrying about in Athens, and he decided that, like the mouse, he would not be concerned about where he lived, so he lived in a tub, a large earthenware pot in the marketplace. When he saw a boy drinking water with his hands, he threw away the cup he owned, and later he threw away his bowl. He went barefoot even in the winter, his possessions consisted of a cloak and what he could carry in a knapsack.
Once, when traveling, he was captured by pirates and sold to a man who employed him to raise his sons to follow Cynic Philosophy. When his friends offered to ransom him from slavery, he refused, saying that “lions are not the slaves of those who feed them; it is the feeders, rather, who are the lions’ slaves. For fear is the mark of a slave, and wild beasts make men fearful.” […]

Major Roman Stoic Philosophers, My Favorite Maxims: Epictetus, Rufus, Seneca & Marcus Aurelius

Bruce Strom 1

Many of the writings of the Stoics sound like passages from the Pauline Epistles. Indeed, Seneca was a contemporary of St Paul. There are epistles written between them, though nearly all scholars think they are spurious. Was St Paul inspired by the Stoic writings of Seneca? Although the Jewish rabbinic tradition was the primary source of inspiration for the Epistles and the Gospels, stoicism was an important secondary influence. In particular, stoicism deeply influenced the desert monastic tradition, which in turn influenced medieval monasticism. […]

St John Climacus on Gluttony in Ladder of Divine Ascent, Eating for Health: DASH Diet

St John Climacus on Gluttony and Fasting, Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 14, and Eating for Health: DASH diet

Bruce Strom 1

Earthly passions, if we do not control them, can lead us to selfishness, can lead us away from selflessness, can cloud the way to our salvation, and can prevent us from loving our neighbor as ourselves. St John Climacus teaches us that the primary passion is gluttony, the gluttony that keeps us from eating a healthy diet, that keeps us from eating in moderation. […]

Roman Emperors Before Marcus Aurelius

Bruce Strom 5

Hadrian’s peace policy was controversial, he abandoned Trajan’s conquests in Dacian Romania and Parthian Persia to concentrate on consolidating the Roman Empire. The problem was that the Roman Empire needed continual expansion, including war booty and slaves, to fund the empire and feed the growing populace of Rome. This policy certainly did not prevent future conflict with Parthian Persia.
Historians debate whether Hadrian’s defensive posture was wise. Were there prosperous provinces left to conquer on the frontiers? On the other hand, the successful expansion of the empire by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian several centuries later nearly bankrupted his Empire. […]

St Neilos on Ascetic Discourses in the Philokalia

Bruce Strom 0

St Neilos contrasts the holy men “who live for the soul alone, turning away from the body and its wants,” the holy men who have no need to flatter the wealthy because they live simply, to those of us who, “instead of courageously struggling against our difficulties, come fawning to the wealthy, like puppies wagging their tails in the hope of being tossed a bare bone or some crumbs. To get what we want, we can them benefactors and protectors of Christians, attributing every virtue to them, even though they may be utterly wicked.” […]

The Life, Adventures, and Philosophy of Xenophon, General and Student of Socrates

Bruce Strom 0

Was Xenophon a warrior, a historian, or a philosopher? Xenophon is one of the rare ancient authors whose entire corpus of major works have survived, putting him in the company of Plato and St Augustine, he was highly regarded among ancient and medieval scholars, though hyper-critical modern scholars tend to deprecate him. He was a student of Socrates and wrote several works featuring Socrates, including a fascinating collections of his Stoic-like sayings in the Memorabilia. […]

Why doesn’t the Bible condemn slavery?

Bruce Strom 0

The Bible does not condemn chattel slavery, or the institution of slavery, because, as Jesus exhorts, the poor will always be with us, there will always be wage slaves, because the rich will always take advantage of poor, seeking to pay them starvation wages, taking advantage of the poor. […]