Week 39: Keep basic Stoic concepts always at hand

WEEK 39

Keep basic Stoic concepts always at hand

We all have ways of speaking to ourselves in our head. The Stoics believed that rehearsing Stoic concepts mentally would help them sink in and arise automatically with time. Georgiana has been practicing by asking herself every time she encounters something external that she initially desires or wants to avoid: How can this improve my character? At first she found it difficult to remember, but after some practice the prompt was never far from her mind. This week, you’ll start soaking your own mind in Stoic principles.

It’s comforting to notice Seneca’s acknowledgment that he is an imperfect practitioner of Stoicism. He admits that behaving according to his own foundational principles still doesn’t come automatically to him. He is not yet wise, but rather a student of wisdom, just like the rest of us. Indeed, none of the ancient Stoics professed to be sages, and downright criticized people who did (such as Epicurus, the founder of one of the rival schools).

Seneca then gives a powerful analogy between the varying ways to dye cloth a certain color and similarly “dyeing” our “soul” by way of our thoughts. Some colors are easily absorbed by the cloth and others take time to steep. The notion is that for those colors (or ideas) that take more time, the more we train ourselves to think in that way, or conversely, to stay away from a certain kind of thinking, the easier it becomes for us to think and behave virtuously. There is modern empirical evidence that this approach does, in fact, work, as the entire practice of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is based upon it. A study of 106 meta-analyses (studies comparing the results of many individual studies) by Stefan G. Hofmann and colleagues found that CBT was effective on anxiety disorders, somatoform disorders, bulimia, anger control problems, and general stress.¹

Importantly, Seneca goes on to concisely tell us which thoughts we should understand and internalize to thoroughly permeate our soul. He adds that “virtue is the only true good; at any rate there is no good without virtue.” It is virtue that directs our actions and makes them good. What people normally think of as “goods,” such as money, can actually be used well or poorly, and the thing itself (in this case, money) isn’t going to tell you how to use it. Conversely, lack of virtue—that is, vice—does the opposite, turning externals into bad things. In the end, says Seneca, virtue is the ability to arrive at true judgments; we can train ourselves to improve our capacity to do so. According to the Stoics, true judgments can clarify every external appearance (“impression,” in Stoic terminology) from which impulses spring (which “stirs our impulses,” as Seneca says). This may look familiar to you, as it’s another example of the application of Stoic psychological theory that you encountered last week.