The Role of Emotions in Stoicism: Appraisals of Needs and Well-being

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Stoicism emphasizes skepticism towards emotions and values reason, but is the idea that emotions are useless really true? Philosopher Martha Nussbaum respects Stoicism's insight that emotions are judgments about the importance of external objects for our well-being. Is this insight truly worthless?

Today we talk about the lessons found in the ancient Greek play titled Hecuba. We talk about the great Stoic ethicists Epictetus, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius. We talk about Martha Nussbaum and her work looking to infuse classical Stoic ideas with all that we've learned in the sciences over thousands of years. We talk about compassion. Shame and guilt. Her capabilities approach. It's a whole lot of fun for the whole family. :)