I think of white marble statues of famous ancient Greeks in a huge library when I hear the word philosophy. When you break down the word, Philo means love and sophos means wisdom. To me, it sounds as if the word “philosophy” could mean “love for wisdom.” I’ve only taken two philosophy courses during my college career, and it was challenging to understand the texts I was assigned to read. Luckily, YouTube exists, and I was able to come across a couple of YouTube channels, like The School of Life and Einzelgänger, that made it easy to understand philosophy. Recently, I’ve found myself watching philosophical videos when I need guidance. It has me wondering if philosophy can be a good tool to ease our anxiety and depression.
In this blog, I want to focus on stoicism. According to “What is Stoicism?” published by the Daily Stoic, “... Stoicism is a tool in the pursuit of self-mastery, perseverance, and wisdom: something one uses to live a great life, rather than some esoteric field of academic inquiry.” It is usually thought of as being “emotionless.” However, based on the quote, stoicism is meant to accept things that are out of our control and focus on things we can control. For example, we can’t control peoples’ thoughts and actions, but we can control our own. Another example is we can't control what has happened in the past, but we can control what we do in the present. The four virtues that are valuable to stoics are courage, temperance, justice and wisdom. Courage is important to have because you will face challenges in life that will require bravery. However, knowing when to walk away instead of fighting is an important skill to have, and that is known as temperance. According to Aristotle, temperance is having the right balance and not excess. Serving justice by changing society’s evil ways through activism is another valuable virtue to the stoics. Last, but certainly not least, wisdom is valued among stoics. Wisdom is being able to know what to do in a situation, and it is gained by a person’s life experience. There are some schools of thought that may go against stoicism, which is why I don’t think it's a definitive way to cure our anxieties. Although, I believe some aspects can be helpful in our daily lives. Everyone is different, and stoicism is not favored by everyone. It's important to learn different philosophical views and see how it can be applied in your daily life. Here are a few quotes from Stoic philosophers that can maybe think can be helpful during difficult times:
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AuthorHello, My name is Ashley Downes, I'm a graduate student who has an interest in mental health, film/TV, and music and wants to share that with others. I'm NOT a mental health professional and my blogs AREN'T meant to be a replacement for mental health services such as therapy. Archives
October 2022
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