This podcast explores the concept of Oikeiôsis and how to identify the aspects of life to actively concern oneself with. It emphasizes the Stoic perspective on ethical concerns and the order of priorities. The episode also discusses recognizing strengths and weaknesses, balancing roles and responsibilities, and freely choosing concerns based on personal desires.
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Quick takeaways
To effectively concern ourselves with global issues, we must assess our limitations and choose actions that align with our strengths and avoid conflicting with our primary responsibilities.
Stoicism teaches us to prioritize aligning our chosen concerns with our existing roles and responsibilities, ensuring harmony and avoiding conflicts.
Deep dives
Realizing the distinction between caring and concerning
Caring about global issues, but determining which ones to actively concern ourselves with is crucial. While it's important to care about distant atrocities, it is impractical and ineffective to concern ourselves with all global problems. To care is to feel sympathy, while to concern oneself is to play an active role in making a change. With the limitation of our lifetime, we can only meaningfully address a few dozen out of the million broken things in the world.
Identifying limitations and strengths
To effectively concern ourselves, we must assess our physical, mental, and financial limitations. For instance, donating money may not be suitable if we are financially poor, but we can contribute through organizing fundraisers. Similarly, identifying our strengths and weaknesses helps us determine how we can best express our concerns. It's essential to choose actions that align with our capabilities and avoid conflicting with our primary responsibilities.
Recognizing unchosen roles and responsibilities
Stoicism acknowledges that certain roles and responsibilities are non-negotiable. Becoming a parent, for example, entails an unchosen role that we cannot abandon. It is necessary to identify these un-choosable roles and ensure that our chosen concerns do not conflict with them. We prioritize aligning our concerns with our existing responsibilities to ourselves, family, and community.
The freedom to choose our concerns
Once we have considered our limitations, recognized our un-choosable roles, and assessed our strengths, we are free to choose our concerns. We can focus on causes like homelessness, civil rights, or global environmental initiatives. The key is to select concerns that harmonize with our existing roles and responsibilities, while also being based on our skills and abilities. By following these steps, we can make logical, rational choices and defend our decisions, freeing ourselves from shame and gaining confidence in our chosen concerns.
This episode of "Practical Stoicism" delves into the concept of Oikeiôsis, focusing on how to identify the aspects of life one should actively concern themselves with. I emphasize the distinction between caring about something and actively concerning oneself with it. Drawing from Stoic philosophy, the episode unfolds in four steps:
#1 - Realize that you're human: Acknowledging that my most proximal concerns must be for ourselves and other humans. The Stoic perspective asserts that our ethical concerns must follow this order: self > family > friends > community > humanity > non-human animals > biosphere
#2 - Identify your strengths, weaknesses: Recognizing our strengths and weaknesses to make informed choices about where to direct our concerns. This involves assessing whether we are financially, physically, or mentally equipped to engage in specific actions.
#3 - Identify the roles you cannot unchoose: Recognizing roles and responsibilities that are inherent, non-negotiable, or arise from our choices. Balancing these roles with new concerns to ensure harmony and avoid abandoning essential responsibilities.
#4 - Choose what you want: Empowered to freely choose concerns based on personal desires, keeping in mind the logical and rational defense developed through previous steps. This step ensures that our choices align with our strengths, limitations, and existing roles.
The episode concludes with the freedom to choose without shame, armed with a rational understanding of personal limitations and priorities. The host encourages listeners to share their chosen concerns on Spotify, fostering a community of inspiration and diverse perspectives.