Stoicism

[music] So we've already seen uh a philosopher trying to answer the question what has more worth, right? We took a look at Epicurus and you know Epicurus says that what has more worth is pleasure. Now he's not advocating going to Las Vegas and blowing all your life savings or anything like that. Rather Epicurus says that you need to fulfill the necessary desires and only the necessary desires. Uh fulfill enough of these physical needs for contentment for peace and tranquility but beyond that don't bother. Now the Stoics are also trying to answer the question what has more worth but they're taking a different approach. They are not doing uh you know they're not talking about pleasure and relying upon fulfilling these necessary desires. Rather, the only thing that has more worth according to the Stoics is your own virtue, right? Is your own virtue. And that's found completely inside oneself, not in fulfilling some [music] desires. [music] Well, very quickly we can ask the question of what what is actually virtue? And we'll get to that in a second, right? Well, maybe a little bit longer than a second. We'll get to that in a little bit. [laughter] The word in Greek in ancient Greek is orate. And we translate that word to mean uh virtue, right? That's a word we translate for virtue. And it means uh something more or less like excellence, right? So virtue is a kind of excellence. It's it's a perfection of oneself. And that happens just within you, right? There's nothing external that is virtue. Now, we might immediately object or somebody might immediately object that that well certainly that maybe virtue is a good thing. Okay. But certainly there are other things that are worthwhile. I mean your reputation or honor, right? The praise or awards or uh uh admiration of other people around you or wealth and possessions, right? what you can have and what you can hold. Now, the Stoics are going to reject this really quickly, right? Uh it is entirely possible to never receive a single compliment or award and yet still have achieved a degree of excellence. I mean, awards, compliments rely upon a lot of other people's ability to recognize excellence, and that's just not always the case. [laughter] Um, in fact, you probably ought not to seek honor and praise from those who are themselves neither honorable nor praiseworthy. So, honor and praise, right? You can have honor and praise and not have this excellence, right? People can be praised or given awards or uh complimented when they haven't really actually done a done a darn thing, right? They're they haven't earned that that award. So honor, you know, or reputation or praise, this comes apart from excellence, right? It can get even worse. Somebody could pursue the honor and the awards without ever actually pursuing excellence, right? To corrupt their own virtue simply for the sake of the recognition, simply for the sake of the praise and admiration and compliments of others. There's all kinds of phrases we use to describe that person. Not many are polite and I'm not going to, you know, repeat this here because at least in this moment I'm exercising [laughter] a degree of kindness. [snorts] Something similar happens with possessions with wealth resources. It's entirely possible for somebody to have an abundance of resources and not reach the degree of excellence. You know, most people in the world are not wealthy. The overwhelming majority of people in the world, you know, high 90% of people are not wealthy. There's a good chunk of the world that is comfortable. Okay. But are we going to say that the people who are merely comfortable are less excellent than those who have wealth? The greater your bank account, the more excellent you are. I guess you could take that approach, I suppose. But how easy is it to lose your wealth? You know, some people wind up on the street and, you know, two bad decisions and then they're there. Somebody can acquire wealth. without ever actually earning it or doing anything for it. I mean, you can, you know, acquire wealth by buying a lottery ticket. It's really rare, but you know, even the act of purchasing the lottery ticket is probably not itself rational. The odds are greatly against your favor in winning the lottery. So, the act of buying a lottery ticket and winning the lottery, I mean, yeah, hey, that's great that you can you win the lottery. You know, don't throw it away, [laughter] but that doesn't mean it's worthwhile, right? It doesn't mean it has actual values to what you are. So, you know, you can have wealth and not have excellence. You can have excellence or virtue and not have wealth, virtue and or this excellence and wealth, it comes apart. They're not the same thing. And the Stoics are going to call things like health and wealth and reputation and friendship, right? The these things that are external to you, they're going to call those indifference. indifference and what an indifferent is is something that can be useful for virtue but is neither necessary nor sufficient. Right? Wealth can be useful for virtue. It can help you acquire uh options and resources uh to develop your own uh rational capabilities. Yeah. Okay. Sure. But you can also use all your wealth to I don't know numb your brain. [laughter] you could buy every last distraction that's on the market and uh never ever perfect oneself, right? So wealth can be useful for virtue, but it's not necessarily so. And and and again, plenty of people have excellence without wealth. Okay? So the only thing for the Stoics, the only thing that has worth is virtue. Trying to pursue wealth, trying to pursue um uh you know, a reputation or honor. I mean, it's not that these are bad. They just don't have the worth of virtue. If it's a choice between virtue on the one hand or one of these indifference, Stoics say no, you got to choose virtue. That's what actually improves you, not the indifference. [music] >> [music] >> So I should probably spend a little time actually explaining the stoic sense of virtue or what counts uh for virtue. So for the stoics, right, you're a certain kind of thing. You're human, right? You're different from a door. You're different from a a dog, a tree. Very long list of things from which you are different, right? And uh your virtue is not found in being the best tree that you can be. No, it's not found in being the best um you know, dog that you could be or the best piece of furniture you could be. No, that's not what you are. What you are is human. So virtue is found in improving developing what it means to be human. And for the stoics what they believe right your human nature consists of two things is rationality and a common humanity. Your rationality is just your ability to use your mind evidence and inference uh to discern the difference between what's true and what's false. And there's quite a lot involved in that practice. So using reason not only to discover what's true or what's false. This is as opposed to emotion. It's not to say emotions are bad. No, emotions can be useful. Sure, emotions can be enjoyed. Yeah, emotions can be enjoyed, but they're not a proper tool for knowledge. And if I look up at the moon and say, I really feel like that's a giant silver dollar in the sky. Maybe I feel that way, but that doesn't make the moon a silver dollar in the sky. your capacity for uh uh for reason. It not only informs your knowledge but uh informs the difference between what's good for you and what's not good for you? What is uh good or bad, right? Uh you may really really like potato chips. Lots of people do. Not good for you. They are non-nutritive flavor wafers, right? Potato chips. and uh you maybe have some intense feelings of oh I enjoy potato chips. Okay, so that's an emotion and that's feeling but that doesn't mean potato chips are good for you. You know Brussels sprouts I myself [snorts] not a fan of Brussels sprouts. I don't enjoy the taste. However, through the use of reason I can figure out yeah there's actually pretty good for me. May maybe ought to figure out a way to eat those Brussels sprouts. Right? So the first part of human nature is your ability to use reason. Not to say you actually do, right? You have the capacity for reason. Now, the stoic's going to say you have that capacity. It's part of what makes you human. You ought to use it. Use reason to inform your knowledge and your actions. [snorts] The other part is the common humanity. You share a common humanity. You look around the world, you see lots of other human beings around you. They're just not that different from you. Right? Dogs are really different from you. And please don't misunderstand. Right? I love my dog. I really do. She's a little sweetheart. She's laying down next to me right now, currently being quiet, thankfully. But she's not human, right? What is uh uh common for me and for my neighbors and my students and for my colleagues, right? My dog doesn't share that. That doesn't mean I get to just disregard my dog. That's not that's not the stoic contention. But, you know, the point being is that me and my neighbors, my colleagues, we all have a common humanity. And you know, it's reasonable. It's rational to respect that. We all have minds. We all have intentions. We all have beliefs, judgments, desires, aversions. And you [sighs] know, you look at what other people do and probably disagree with it. Okay, I'm not saying you can't disagree with it, but part of the common humanity is the person out there that you think is make you maybe making a really big mistake in how they should live their lives. They're just not that different from you. They're they're doing the best that they can given with what they know and believe and have experienced. To discredit that or dismiss it simply because it's not you is not to respect your common humanity. Living in common humanity means living a life of justice and uh something along the lines of just governance, of freedom and sovereignty all at the same time, right? where we all have to cooperate with each other and not a life where we subjugate one another, where we oppress other people simply because of the way that we feel. And not a a life of um I don't exactly how to phrase this, but a a life where you just think that other people are just terrible simply because they're not you and they don't think the way that they that you do or the way that you act. That's not a proper that's not recognizing the common humanity. Admittedly, this last part takes a lot of practice. So, this is a stoic intention of virtue that you live a life according to reason and rationality. You use your mind to discover what's true or what's false and to figure out what's good for you and bad for you and your common humanity. Now, this is your virtue, right? This is what you are. That is the only thing that you have that it has any worth. And the stoics say it's the only thing that you have that you know only thing that you have and the only thing that has any worth because that's all there is to you. You are your capacity for reason and you are your common humanity. So this is roughly right or not roughly this is the stoic sense of virtue based upon human nature. Now made a big deal about using reason and the stoics have a very particular set of uh u how shall we say uh uh notions that through the use of reason the stoics say this is what you recognize this is what you believe. Let's take a look at that next. >> [music] [music] >> So I said that for the stoics part of what is in your human nature is the capacity for reason. And one of the first things that you discover with your capacity for reason is probably very obvious and very non-controversial. It's called the division of control or sometimes called the dichotomy of control. Here it is. Some things are in your control and some things are not. Uh, I cannot control the weather. Be interesting if I could, but I can't. I cannot control the what nature of existence. I cannot control other people's actions. Right? I can't control other people's actions. Uh, I can't control whether potato chips are healthy or unhealthy. Right? that's not in my control. Some things are my control and some things are not. The Stoics say, well, look, what is in your control is what you should concern yourself with. That's what you can actually do. Trying to do anything that's not in your control is at least irrational or at least believing that because I want it to be so and I'm I'm doing this right, it's now going to change. Oh, no. That's not in your control. Um, I can't control the weather. And for me to sit here and say I'm going to control the weather today in, you know, through an act of the wheel just trying to force the weather to change, that's at least irrational and it's probably going to be very distressing. It's frustration is not a fun thing. And it is kind of weird. And I I find this maybe odd part of our human nature. uh we do get frustrated when we can't control those things which we can't or sorry when we try to control those things which we in fact cannot control why our reaction isn't something along the lines of oh I just can't do that I don't know we get we get frustrated and angry that frustration and anger is not good for you it disrupts your virtue for you know not all for starters right trying to control what you can't control that inhibits your ability to reason or it's at least a poor use of your ability to reason me trying to control the weather is like no no that's deeply irrational and persisting in that belief persisting in that effort I'm going to control this that compounds irrationality that hurts my virtue what can be helped and what could be harmed is your virtue and trying to do anything outside of your control that's going to hurt it. There's more things that can hurt your virtue, right? But to be clear, these are things that you do, not anybody else, right? I can't make other people less virtuous, right? That's also not in my control. I can't I'm going to make it less. No, that's not what's happening. I also can't be make people more virtuous. As much as I enjoy teaching, well, you know, my efforts have limits. >> [laughter] >> There's only so much that I can do that can improve people's capacities for a reason and it it's just not in my control. So this is the first thing you know the dichotomy of control or the excuse me the division of control through the act of reason you realize I can control some things and I can't control others. I shouldn't worry about what I can't control. I should only worry about what I can control. That is rational. That's actually going to bring about uh you know a a good life. So, what's in our control? [music] [music] So, what's probably not a big surprise is the list of things that we can control is limited. Uh, what will be a surprise is the list is probably shorter than you think it is for the Stoics, right? So when they're talking about control, they're talking about the things that you can make immediately happen simply by your decision, right? Um this is control as opposed to influence, right? Influence, you can perform certain actions that you know maybe raise the probability of the outcome happening that what you want to happen, but it's not guaranteed. So you know I may want to uh you know talk about the weather. There's pretty much nothing I could do to influence the weather. [laughter] at least not me as an individual can influence the weather. But suppose I want to influence or or make happen um I don't know um other people's behavior. I can't control other people's behavior but I can perform certain actions that maybe right in all likelihood people will act the way that I'd prefer the way that I want. So if I, you know, my neighbor right next to me, if I want my neighbor to um, you know, treat me with kindness and respect, I will treat them with kindness and respect. I will greet my neighbor and be courteous. Now, that doesn't necessitate that they'll be kind and respectful back towards me. No, of course not. But it raises the probability more likely that they'll be uh kind and respect. And for what it's worth, my neighbors are kindful and respectful. [laughter] Um, so you know, we got control versus influence. And for as far as control is concerned is pretty limited. You can control your judgments. Judgments are uh what is true or what's false. Right? What you believe to be true, what you believe to be false. To be clear, just because you judge something to be case doesn't automatically mean it's the case, right? They're not relativist as far as that's concerned. But um you know your your ascent to uh these judgments that's what makes it a judgment. Next are beliefs. So beliefs and this might be a little bit confusing but beliefs are these judgments that you maintain through the course of your life or you know for a really really long period of time right? uh there's standards about you know beliefs about how the world works right you know I have a longstanding belief that I cannot control the weather [laughter] it's such a long-standing belief because through most of my you know well not most all of my life no matter how much I've wished for the weather to go one direction the other it doesn't so that so since I've had that judgment again and again that I can't control the weather that is now one of my beliefs I can't control the weather another belief of mine Again, it's not part of my control what my neighbor does, but it's part of my beliefs. Again, through experience, reiterations of these judgments. By being kind and respectful of my neighbors, I'm more likely more is more likely be the case that my neighbors will in turn be kind and respectful towards me. Judgments, right? What you ascent to what you what's true or what's false. And also judgments of what's good or bad. Again, Brussels sprouts good for me. But potato chips are not okay. Judgments uh uh beliefs. The next step uh are your uh uh desires and aversions. Now this is not the same thing as what Hume talks about with desires. We got a difference here. Uh for the Stoics, when you judge something to be good, you desire it. When you judge something to be bad, you're averse to it. So, [laughter] and this maybe is where potato chips and Brussels sprouts may not be the best example. Uh, I still desire potato chips, but you know, to be perfectly honest, I desire them a lot less, right? After, you know, having potato chips in recent years, I've noticed I'm a lot more lethargic. I'm just not as uh coherent. Right? If I have a a pile of potato chips, I feel lousy. It's increasingly the case. And and I got to say, I I don't eat potato chips nearly as much as I used to. At this point, you know, the desire for them is strongly waning. I just It's just not that often where I go through the store, I'm like, I want to buy potato chips. And I got to tell you, the few times that I have indulged in that where I was like, no, I think it's going to taste good. I'll I'll like it. That'll be a good thing. uh the few times that I've indulged in that uh lately hasn't been that great. Like I really regretted that decision, right? So that [laughter] that judgment that potato chips are good has slowly, you know, I had a belief that potato chips are good. That belief is slowly waning. It will soon turn into the belief that you know potato chips are bad. Uh [laughter] and really as a consequence through my own struggles with potato chips, I am more and more averse to potato chips. Doritos gone, right? Don't not inclined towards those anymore. Um, yeah. So, [laughter] you know, if I judge it to be good, then I'll desire it. If I judge it to be bad, I'll I'm averse to it. Uh, Brussels sprouts will probably take a little bit longer. I'm fully aware of the nutritional benefits of Brussels sprouts, but it's it's difficult for me to reach the judgment that they're in fact good simply because of the way they taste, right? I've got other vegetables that I eat. I think I'll stick with those. [laughter] So judgments about what's true or false, good or bad. Long-term reiterated judgments become our beliefs. Uh judgments about what are good or bad. These basically become our values, right? And uh those values, what you judge to be good or bad, right? Those in turn become desires and aversions. Desires and aversions form, excuse me, form your intentions. Intentions are what you want to be the outcome of your actions. Your intention is in your control. The action uh the outcome of the action is not right. The outcome of the action is not in your control. I can you know I I can value uh health. I can value you know the feeling that comes from eating well. All right. Cool. That is my desire. I want that. Awesome. So, I decide I'm going to have more vegetables. I'm gonna exercise. That is my intention. And I perform that action. Whether or not I become more healthy, well, that's an outcome that is not in my control. Maybe I influence it. All right. I can influence it. But control, no. So, we got u uh judgments, beliefs, desires, aversions, the intentions. All of this forms what in the Greek word I'm probably not going to pronounce this right so forgive me for it proaris proar proharesis prohares that's it proharesis again another word in Greek obviously I'm not ancient Greek didn't pronounce that very well but proharesus is translated as basically choice or valition and that's true as far as it goes but we can you know maybe make the mistake to think well we're talking about a particular single choice voice and for the sto like no no no no right remember all the while you're making these judgments and they're performing beliefs and they're forming in uh desires and aversions that's forming intentions this is a long lifelong process that's continually changing and updating and you're improving your ability to make choices by starting with accurate judgments right refining these judgments about what's good or bad and that refineses everything else starting that chain that refineses everything else to improve your ability to decide to choose to act. Now, all that's in here. None of what I've described is is outside of my mind, is outside of my my brain, right? This cup is not part of that virtue. Remember what I said earlier, right? What you are is the only thing that can be helped or harmed. And what I am for the stoics has this capacity for reasons, capacity for the common humanity. What I am is asenting to these judgments, beliefs, desires, aversions, intentions, prohibes. That's the only thing that could be helped. That's the only thing that could be harmed. And all of it's under my control. So for the stoics, If I want to improve, if I want my uh uh if I want to have what has worth, that's up to me. I have to do it. Nobody can give it to me. Nobody can make me. Similar comments apply for harm. If I am harmed, it's because I have harmed my judgments. I have harmed my beliefs. I have harmed my desires, aversions, intentions for heresis. Nobody else can change my judgments. Nobody else can change my desires and aversions. That's all up to me. Maybe somebody else can persuade me. Okay. Right. They give me line really good line of reasoning. But it's up to me to ascent to what they have said. So the only thing that could be helped or harmed is my virtue. And only I can do that. Nobody else. The indifference that's not in my control. It's not me. Can't be helped or harmed. [music] So, we spent a little time talking about what you can control. It's worth worth it to spend a little time talking about what you can't control. [laughter] Well, what you can't control is your body. Now immediately someone's like, "Um, I just did this. Of course, I could control my body." Well, you can influence your body. Sure. Right. This has limits. I can only move my arm so fast in so many directions with such strength. And even the decision, you know, the act of moving my arm, well, that still depends upon a properly functioning nervous system, upon having enough nutrition, about being awake, about being alive. [laughter] All these other conditions have to be in place in order for me to be able to do this. It's not under my direct control, my influence. And you know, at least in this moment, what happens with my hand is is more under my influence than anybody else's. I mean, somebody else could come along who's stronger and move my hand in ways that I don't want. Your body is not in your control. It's not you. It's not virtue. Your body your body can experience pain. It could be damaged. But for the Stoics, that's not you. It's it's not preferred. You know, you don't want to experience pain. But if you experience pain against your will, it's still not hurting you. The only thing that hurts you, what you judge about that pain. Similar comments apply for health as well. Your health is not under direct control. Maybe it could influence. Okay, cool. Let's influence. And even that has limits, right? We have limits to the ailments that we can cure. So your body, health, these are indifference. They could be useful for virtue, but they're not necessary for it. They're not sufficient for, and they're not under your direct control. Wealth, reputation, pretty much the same thing. These are not in your control. I can influence the wealth that I have, but I can't control it. If anybody could, that person would instantly be a billionaire with a Mercedes or something like that or Bugatti, right? Bugatti. Same thing with reputation, honor. what other people think and believe about me that's not in my control that is completely exterior to what happens and frankly other people's actions and all exterior events that's not in my control maybe I can influence a few things but my realm of influence is relatively minor right I do not have a wide range of influence and frankly nobody does nobody really has that wide range of influence so all of these things these can be indifference they can be useful or material material for cultivating virtue, but they're not the same thing as virtue. They're not necessary for virtue. They're not sufficient for virtue. You can destroy possessions, you haven't destroyed me. You can speak ill of me, you haven't hurt me. You can destroy my body. You could, you know, hurt my body. You still haven't hurt me. May it cause me pain. All right. But what has worth is not my body. What has worth for the Stoics is virtue. And you can't change my capacity for reason. I can. You can't. You can't change my common humanity. I can act according to that or or not. But that's me, not you. This in a nutshell is is epic is the stoic contention, right? You're in control of your judgments, your beliefs, your uh desires and aversions, your intentions and proharesis for cultivating this uh uh capacity to choose. That's up to you. That's what has worth. Nothing else does. It's all in here, not out there. [music] >> [music] >> Now, it's not hard to think that the Stoics have made a mistake here. I mean, after all, it's really hard to cult, you know, to be rational if you're suffering. So, if you don't have a house, if you don't have food, if you don't have uh friends or reputation, right? It's easy to think that well that person there's just nothing you could do to cultivate their virtue and it sure seems like their you know their their physicality anyway is damaged and the stoic say well yeah I mean that's reasonable to reach that conclusion but that's not all there is to think about the matter I mean f first of all there are some amazing cases in history of people that suffered greatly and still cultivated excellence right? They didn't degenerate into a you know inhumane thing. [laughter] Um you have some examples that come to mind uh well you know during epic uh uh during the time of ancient Greek I mean he wasn't a a stoic he was a cynic but Dioynes of Leurch I think is how you pronounce it. Uh he was notorious for living out in the the open. He was he didn't have material possessions at all. Right. Uh and he you know that can't be a lot of fun but he disciplined himself right he lived a very disciplined life um Victor Frankle another amazing case Victor Frankle uh survived the Holocaust and you know it's probably not fair to call him a stoic but he cultivated a lot of excellences a lot of virtue he developed uh you know after the holocaust he studied and became a psychotherapist and he developed something called logootherapy which relies upon some of the same principles in stoicism. He did all this in the midst of the holocaust. You in the midst of that suffering he worked on his excellence. Nelson Mandela heavily influenced by the Stoics specifically Marcus Aurelius suffered imprisonment and torture but cultivated excellence. But when he left prison, when he was freed, he did not embark on a vengeance campaign, take a much more merciful approach. So, it's just simply false that, you know, somebody without material resources can't cultivate virtues. It ain't common and it ain't easy, granted, but you can do it. So, that's one stoic response. The other stoic response is to say that you know even if right suppose [laughter] suppose you had to choose between fulfilling your necessary desires and uh cultivating virtue right you could choose between the one of these two things uh if you were to choose the necessary desires and sacrifice virtue you think it was a bad thing example may not come easily to mind but it's a little bit contrived but suppose right um you're starving I don't know suppose you're in the concentration camp. Suppose you're in the midst of the Holocaust and uh one of the guards comes up and said, "You know what? Uh we're going to, you know, you look like you're starving. You need some food. That's fine. I will give you some food, but you got to rat out three people and we'll send them off for execution. They're really worth the food to do that to somebody else. I'll keep you comfortable. I'll keep you in a house and I'll keep you with food and I'll give you entertainment. I'll make sure your physical desires are satisfied. But in exchange, uh, you have to denigrate yourself and call me your Lord. Are you going to take that deal? I mean, some people will, of course, but we don't think that's a good thing. So the stoics reply to say somebody like that becarion say no virtue is more important because first of all you can have virtue without fulfilling necessary desires and on top of it if you had to sacrifice necessary desires for the sake I'm sorry sacrifice virtue for the sake of fulfilling necessary desires would be a bad Okay. [music] >> [music] >> So another objection or response to stoicism is to say well look you you've got these desires and aversions wrapped up into it. All right but then this just rem reduces it down to emotivism. Emotivism says that uh if you think something is right or feel something is right well then then it's right. your actions justified. All right? And we're talking about these desires and aversions. Uh and even by the description, you desire what you judge to be good and you are averse to what you judge to be bad. So one immediate thing to say right away though is that you know the emotivist has this kind of reverse, right? The emotic says if you judge it to be good, then you'll desire it. If you judge it to be bad, then you're averse to it. Emotivism is reversed. If you're if you desire it, you judge it to be good. And if you're averse to it, you judge it to be bad. So that the order of priority, so to speak, is just already reversed. But let's leave that alone. The main point of contention uh with the emotivist is that your desires and aversions are not in your control. Now, Stoke says, well, no, they are. So, we're going to talk about one more thing. We're introduce something else called impressions. Impressions are these immediate thoughts or feelings that pop into your mind. And today in in social media today, we probably refer to at least some of the time refer to these as intrusive thoughts. Probably every intrusive thought is an impression. But pro maybe not every impression is an intrusive thought. So whenever you experience something, chances are you're going to have an impression right away. All right? Now, if you simply take that impression and you ascent to it and you go on that way, right? You form your beliefs, desires, and aversions by impressions. Yeah. that that's probably going to be something like emotivism and it's going to be deeply irrational, chaotic, and probably going to be lead to a lot of misery. If you just simply act upon these impressions, you're not using thought. You're not using reason. You ought to pause and take a moment and think, okay, what's actually going on here? I've got this impression, but is it the truth? All right. So, the first thing that happens is you receive an impression. So, let's use a case. Suppose I'm being insulted, right? somebody is uh you know having a conversation with somebody and that they're really getting frustrated and angry and they say, "Well, you know what? You're just an idiot. You look stupid. You've got a scraggly beard. I hate your hair. Your four eyes. You're fat. You're old. Oh, I hate you so much. You're terrible. And you're going to die alone." Somebody's pretty angry. [laughter] That's a lot of insults. Now, if I just, you know, I hear that, I'm probably going to be upset. Well, yeah, of course. any normal human being is going to be upset by hearing these insults that if you just take that impression and run with it, that's when you're being irrational. But stoics will say, reframe the impression, right? Yes, somebody's angry at me. They're hurling insults, but that's not all to consider. I mean, one thing to consider right right away is, is this person's judgment of me anything that's worthwhile? They don't they don't live my life. They don't have the thoughts and beliefs and experiences that I do. They don't have to suffer the consequences of my decisions. Uh they don't uh get to benefit from my decisions. Right? This person is removed from my life other than probably standing in the same room with me. Why is that judgment, that statement anything worthwhile? It probably isn't. you know, even more so, there's just nothing of what other people believe that actually changes my life. Somebody believing something about me doesn't make it a part of me, right? I mean, I might be ugly, okay, fine. But they're saying that I'm ugly doesn't make me ugly. [laughter] Saying that I'm beautiful doesn't make me beautiful, right? That they hate my hair, well, that's them. That's not me. So whatever that person says or believes about me doesn't actually change anything about me at all. That doesn't hurt me. That doesn't hurt my judgments, my beliefs, my desires, aversions, intentions, none of it. The insult is just sound. It doesn't make me anything. It doesn't even necessarily guarantee that other people will think the same thing about me. So the insult I mean overall is just not that important in reframing the impression the stoic is going to rely upon this dichotomy control a lot of times right one of the ways to reframe is rely upon the dichotomy of control and one way to kind of bring this back is you know even ask right maybe the insult is accurate I mean I'm not okay so maybe Maybe I'm good-looking, maybe I'm not. Let's leave that alone. But I'm a little heavy. [laughter] Not on the lighter end of things. Um, so that insult that I'm that I'm fat, right? That's accurate to a degree. Well, this is being pointed out to me. This is something that that's coming up. So sometimes the insults are accurate. And if the insult is accurate and I could think about it for a second, it's like, well, wait, am I fat? Am I ugly? you know. So, okay. Well, I'm not the best looking person in the world. That's that's true. All right. So, how do I adjust my life with this? I'm not going to try to walk around acting as if I'm the most beautiful person in the room. That would be irrational. Let me walk around as you what? Three and a half, four, right? [snorts] Okay. I'm aware of the degree of my attractiveness and I can ac I can better predict uh outcomes of actions. Cool. So, if the insult is accurate, I can reframe that impression to a better judgment to a more accurate judgment. Like, oh yeah, I'm not the not the best looking person in the room. Somebody says they hate my hair, not much I could do about that. And frankly, I just don't care. [laughter] Why does that matter whether somebody hates my hair? Um, so I had the impression, but you don't have to stick with the impression. You can use your capacity for reason to reframe the impression to an accurate judgment. So again, right, these judgments are not only what's true or what's false, but also what's good or what's bad. And and even when you leaving that aside, I could just focus on the dichotomy of control itself. If somebody's insulting me, this gives me an opportunity to reframe the impression. This gives me an opportunity to exercise my capacity for reason to recognize what's in my control and what is not. Right? And all of that will contribute to the cult my own proharesis, my own discipline in my actions and behaviors. The insult whether you by way at this point whether it's accurate or not that insult is a benefit and an accurate insult is also a benefit. So use by refraraming it I could turn that insult into something that's actually good for me because it helped me cultivate my virtue. [snorts] If the insult is inaccurate, I mean who cares? [laughter] It's just not important um that this other person is wagging their their gums at uh something that they're angry at me about. Who cares? So, uh by reframing which is in my control, I could take that impression have an accurate judgment which informs the beliefs and those two things right are part of the values and the values uh determine my my desires and aversions. So, it's not just whimsy, it's not just whim. The desires and aversions are in my control. And we can push this even further. You can have control over your own emotions. You don't need to get angry over every last insult. You don't need to get angry or upset or anxious or fearful about what other people say. It it just doesn't matter. It doesn't affect you. Or maybe you think, well, what they say matters because it affects the world. You're overestimating the amount of control that other people have and you're overestimating your control. You can't change other people's beliefs. Why get angry about it? And even more, right? You apply the division of control here a little bit and reframing this. Um, you want to change what other people believe. Will getting angry at them do that? How often is it that you getting angry at somebody changes their mind? Or how often is it that somebody getting angry at you changes your mind? Probably not that often. Yeah. [laughter] So, your desires and your versions and maybe your emotions, broadly speaking, it it's not easy. It's not going to happen automatically. But through discipline, through this practice, this exercise of reason, yeah, you'll control your diversions, control your uh uh uh sorry, desires, control your aversions, and maybe control your diversions as well, [laughter] control your desires, control your aversions, control your anger, control your anxiety, control your fear. There's a stoic discipline beginning with reason and the division of control. Change your proharesis, improve your virtue, and be better off through your own decisions. [music]