In a sceptical post-modern age where nihilism is fashionable and everyone has their own truth and all values are equal, the revival of Stoicism represents a return to philosophical naturalism.
We are as much a part of Nature as the rocks, rivers, trees and creatures around us. Nature is where we come from, where we live and where we belong, and we are born into a rich tapestry of connection and significance.
The world is a home fit to live in, in which we are active participants and of which we are custodians.
The core of this Socratic philosophy is that our ability to critically reflect on our thinking and values is the only thing that is truly ours, the only thing of true value.
The role of each of us to understand ourselves and our place in the world, creating a harmony of understanding within ourselves, which becomes knowledge of how to contribute to the harmony of the whole.
This kind of understanding, practical knowledge, is virtue and for the Stoics the only goal worth pursuing.
Say to yourself at the start of the day, I shall meet with meddling, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, and unsociable people.
Marcus Aurelius: Meditations. Book 2 chapter 1
They are subject to all these defects because they have no knowledge of good and bad. But I, who have observed the nature of the good, and seen that it is the right; and of the bad, and seen that it is the wrong; and of the wrongdoer himself, and seen that his nature is akin to my own—not because he is of the same blood and seed, but because he shares as I do in mind and thus in a portion of the divine—
I, then, can neither be harmed by these people, nor become angry with one who is akin to me, nor can I hate him, for we have come into being to work together, like feet, hands, eyelids, or the two rows of teeth in our upper and lower jaws.
To work against one another is therefore contrary to nature; and to be angry with another person and turn away from him is surely to work against him.
This is a life in accordance with Nature. .
Living Stoicism 