The Modern Stoic Renaissance - the practical philosophy - a balance to modern nihilism and materialist dogma?

´Riches I hold in light esteem,

And love I laugh to scorn;

And lust of fame was but a dream

That vanish'd with the morn:

And if I pray, the only prayer

That moves my lips for me

Is, "Leave the heart that now I bear,

And give me liberty!"

Yes, as my swift days near their goal,

'Tis all that I implore:

In life and death a chainless soul,

With courage to endure.´

Emily Brontë

The modern stoic renaissance is blooming, but the question is how big will this renaissance be and what exactly is it? Or perhaps better put, what is inspiring it?

By stoicism, I refer to the ancient school of philosophy in which thoughtful principles, toughness and being virtuous were seen as the most important hallmarks of being human and living a good life. Therefore, what's inspiring it's modern-day popularity is the backlash to modern-day excessive hedonism, every increasingly transparent corruption and the fact ancient wisdom comes from a time where people weren't enveloped in comfort and therefore, had to be stronger and less superficial and needed philosophers to match. Despite our comforts, we humans today aren't that different to our ancestors, in that we still live with fight-or-flight instincts guiding us everyday, our brains are adapted more to the past than the radically-different present and we still crave a depth in life that isn't given by the TV, thankfully.

Modern stoicism’ core tenet is that nature is rational and therefore humans must follow nature through rationally understanding it in order to avoid creating suffering. By rationality I think its important to point out that Stoics mean by this that there is a meaning to life and fairness within nature, rather than that everything is decided by a lottery and that there is no order, no pattern to life, and no reason to live. However, this does not mean in reality that everything can be divided into proportional parts, for all we know part of nature is that things can be greater than the sum of their parts, which surely applies to nature in itself. Equally, modern stoics view that a life led according to rational nature is virtuous and that wisdom is the root virtue; from which spring the cardinal virtues: insight, bravery, self-control and justice. Contrary to spelling out answers to the curious, it is a philosophy that centres around the belief that we do not know the answers, that we should have many needs and that we must be free to express ourselves. This conflicts completely with the even more popular modern nihilistic, materialistic, pseudo-scientific mindset that everything can be solved or has no meaning, and that myth, mystery and religion are obsolete or delusional parts in the human psyche.

“Wise people are in want of nothing, and yet need many things. On the other hand, nothing is needed by fools, for they do not understand how to use anything, but are in want of everything.” – Chrysippus.

“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing freedom of speech. Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom, and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech” - Cato

´The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. The more I know, the more I realise I know nothing' - Socrates

Highly grounded, it is a stoic belief that apathea (freedom from emotion or excitement) is actually a skill as it fights passionate excess, and that pleasure should be understood as neither good nor bad, but acceptable only if it doesn’t interfere with the quest for virtue (which should be sought, not for the sake of pleasure, but for duty). In other words, Stoics always understood that as we are creatures of habits, and as habits may or may not be good or bad, but do in general require pain to break - to stop us from becoming robots, we must be able act not only out of ease or pleasure, but above all out of a feeling for virtue. Another more optimistic stoic-viewpoint is that no-one is as poor as when they were at birth, which relates with Horace’s carpe dium motif meaning seize the day, meaning everyday successful or not, we are technically richer for the experience.

Stoics stress the importance to know oneself as the beginning of all wisdom, hence the new movement that is springing is almost certainly going to be a stoic renaissance, as now people have more free time to know themselves than ever before.

The origins of Stoicism, famous Stoics and their beliefs - proving its basis to be practicality

Stoicism heralds from Ancient Greece (being founded by Zeno of Citium and second-founded by Chrysippus) and from Rome where it was the philosophy followed by Marcus Aurelius (the last of the five good emperors) and where lasting contributions to Stoicism were also made by the great ancient Roman Philosophers of Marcus Cato, Epictetus and Seneca.

The founder of Stoicism, Zeno of Citium, was slightly older and inspired by Socrates and at its beginning Stoicism as a movement had many hallmarks that derived from Socrates, though few from Aristotle, until the Roman times changed stoicism.

Zeno built his philosophy based upon three aspects - ethics (taking a cynics stance), physics (building upon Plato’s Timaeus) and logic, where he was most revolutionary, moving away from Plato and moving towards what is nowadays most understood by Carl Jung's collective conscious premise. Zeno forwardly believed that there were certain impressions available to everyone through the senses which are an infallible guide to external truths and that therefore, empirically, that these impressions are the starting point for scientifically understanding of the world.

It’s second founder, Chrysippus was the most leading stoic set on the path of logic. He believed the world to be deterministic, taking the stance that all things in our lives are predetermined and responses to factors out of our control. As he believed we have personal freedom, he felt that the importance lies in developing an individual understanding of the world, in order that we can have the best set of reactions to the factors outside of our control, for ourselves and others. Chrysippus viewed the universe to be god and the universal outpouring its soul.

In a period of middle stoicism, Artistolian values became more embedded in the Stoicism movement, as Stoics like Panaetius advocated the Aristotelian thesis of the world’s eternity, although he believed souls like humans died.

However worth knowing its fundamentals, it would be simplistic to say Stoicism is a philosophy that sets out what it is to be a good person - it leaves the question of what is virtuous to the subjective taste of the individual. However, it would not be simplistic to say the truest of stoics would almost certainly make some of the best, most dependable managers, leaders and most strong-willed ethical individuals.

As the basis of stoicism was practicality and loved by the Romans, it was widely developed by every type of Roman, from last of the five good Roman Emperors - Marcus Aurelius, who famously wrote his Stoic memoirs; to Nero’s unlucky advisor - Seneca, who wanted better treatment of slaves and was eventually ordered to kill himself; to the most poor, such as by the slave Epictetus, who was the world’s most famous public speaker during his time; to the most afluent as well, such as Marcus Cato – a wealthy but humble aristocrat who would not be bribed and would not be ruled by possessions, instead deciding to live off rags, and who fought politically Julius Caesar.

Zeno

Cato

Chrysippus