Massimo Pigliucci
November 28, 2017
New Humanist
When my thinking and behavior fail me in my estimation and what I infer to be the estimation of others I care about, as well as those for whom I don't give a fig, Stoicism has not failed me nor have I failed Stoicism.
The Stoic lifeway does not
promise perfect thinking or consistent happiness for attempting the thoughts
and acts it guides us toward. Nor does it offer eternal life or reincarnation
as a 'higher' life form upon our death as rewards for our Earthly efforts, as
some large and small religions do.
It is my self evaluator, my conscience,
that has failed me due to my misapplication of it or its miscalibration of
focus or tolerance. The miscalibration of one's conscience is a problem both
long-standing and something inherently human - a tendency to go out of
calibration from time to time from any number of causes.
As for my estimation of my social
standing, many say such should be of no concern to me, ever. So do the Stoics
when they assert the only concern an individual should have is cultivating
one's personal virtue. In doing that, the Stoics say, the estimation of others
will more often than not take care of itself.
If others misjudge us, it is not of
our doing and something beyond our control, and therefore should not be of any
concern to us. It certainly should not concern us in thought or action until
their misjudgments result in actions of theirs that do fall unequivocally
within our realm of control. And then it is only our thoughts and actions, not
theirs, that we may choose to control.
Absolute triumph over one's thinking,
behavior, and one's desire for happiness only occurs, we are often and
correctly told, among saints and sages.
But it is good for us to recall
that saints are theological renderings of the surface impressions
theologians form of those they tell us are saintly. The person behind and
represented by those tellings is no different from each of us in terms of being
imperfectly human in everything they are and attempt. Saintliness occurs among
all humans as something lived, as a matter of degree not kind.
Sages also exist, more often than not
in the judgements and renderings of our learned, more secular-inclined fellows.
As with saints, a close look behind pronouncements of sagacity and the
conferring of sagehood on a person reveal the same fallibilities of saints -
wisdom, like saintliness, is in us all varying only in degree, not kind.
Even saints and sages sometimes in
their earthly life stand naked, foul, failed, and ashamed.
Personal success or failure exists on
a continuum. One's ever-changing place on that range of accomplishment
depends on the degree of one's effort and persistence at living by the
principles of Stoicism, the lifeway being considered here, and on matters
beyond one's control.
Achieving completely perfect thinking
and happiness for the rest of one's life without instances of failure, to some
degree or other, cannot be achieved through Stoicism. But the Stoic way of
organizing and directing one's personal and social efforts comes closest to
such an ideal and reduces the number and degree of personal and social results
that are less than perfect.
The essay linked above by philosopher and
biologist Massimo Pigliucci describes what Stoicism offers.
