The Existential Commitment of the Stoic

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Many moderns get hung up on the idea that they have to, quote, believe in a divine and providentially ordered cosmos. It's not about belief but an existential choice, says philosopher Pierre hada. The piety of the stoics was not based on myth or revelation. Even the true sceptic assents to an unknowable cosmos. Seneca pointed out the difference between these world views in a practical yet poignant manner. No matter which is true, lucilius, or even if they are all true, we must still practise philosophy.

What defined a Stoic above all else was the choice of a life in which every thought, every desire, and every action would be guided by no other law than that of universal Reason. ~ Pierre Hadot[i] The Stoics placed a rational, divine, and providentially ordered cosmos at the center of their philosophical system and relied on it to guide their every thought, desire, and action. For the Stoic, Nature is the measure of all things. Therefore, the Stoics argued to experience well-being (eudaimonia), we must live in agreement with Nature. [i] Hadot, P., & Chase, M. (1998). The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, p. 308 FULL TRANSCRIPT COMING SOON