Living Stoicism

Socratic Philosophy for the 21st Century

marcus-aurelius

About Living Stoicism

Living Stoicism is an idea to broaden the scope of discussion and understanding around Stoic philosophy.

Beyond the applications of the Stoic theories of emotion and well-being, Stoicism has significant contributions to make to modern philosophy, psychology, science and ethics.

In the same way that Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Epicurus still influence modern thinking, the thinking of Zeno, Chrysippus and their heirs can once more become central to our ways of looking at the world.

Most importantly, an emphasis is placed on personal ethics, how they relate to Stoic logic and physics, and what the individual can do to affect society in positive ways.

To quote Marcus Aurelius,

“Since you yourself are one of the parts that serve to perfect a social system, let your every action contribute to the perfecting of social life. Any action of yours, then, which has no reference, whether direct or indirect, to these social ends, tears your life apart, prevents it from being at one, and creates division, as does the citizen in a state who for his own part cuts himself off from the concord of his fellows.”

Meditations, 9.23 

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