Philosophy as Conversion, and Stoic Wisdom during Tumult

Practicing philosophy is a conversion of the soul. Once knowledge has seeped into the brain, it is quite difficult to get it out, despite its sometimes, unpleasant nature and the subsequent effect on the emotions we have. The cognition of ideas is an inherent prerequisite to understanding those ideas. It does, however, lack the dimension of analysis. It is knowledge, but without contextualization. In turn, being able to understand ourselves, our reactions, and how to have control in such an uncontrollable and violent world is difficult, but attainable. Plato spoke of virtuous education with young children and why early in life is an important time for education. In times of crisis, the Greek Stoics, like Epictetus and Seneca, who were in some ways inspired by the writings of Plato, have remarkably helpful exercises for the spirit. They had a significant amount to share as to how we can maintain that life is still worth living, despite its vast uncertainty.

            Plato takes children very seriously, realizing that this conversion of the soul to virtue and knowledge must begin at the youngest age, when the child is learning how to exist in their world and within their society.  “You know, don’t you, that the beginning of any process is most important, especially for anything young and tender? It’s at that time that it is most malleable and takes on any pattern one wishes to impress on it.” (Rep. Book 2, 377A) Plato realized the importance of the teacher and the content that is explored with children. As a philosopher, he believes that “We must first of all, it seems, supervise the storytellers. We’ll select their stories whenever they are fine or beautiful and reject them when they aren’t… they will shape their children’s souls with stories.” (Rep. Book 2, 277B-C) He is making it clear that the soul is impressionable at the youngest stages of life and therefore positive understanding must be exposed to them in order to shape them into good adults functioning in a complex society.

            If the virtuous teachings should begin young, and begin as a kind of exploration, one must ask what are the ways in which we can do so, and what topics will they concern? The Stoics were rooted in principle, that is, our “inward opinions,” (Discourses, Chap XI) as Epictetus said. It seems that as Plato recognized the child to have the capacity to learn the truth, the Stoics recognized that the only way to be true as an adult is to be true to oneself, not an idealized form, and to be able to maintain that fortitude even in times of situational unrest and disadvantage. These theories are complementary in that the good that is instilled as a child will make it easier to understanding oneself and therefore to be good as an adult.

The Stoic Seneca said, “As long as you live, keep learning how to live” (Letters to Lucilius, Letter LXXVI, 10 ). Philosophy is not a single conversion, like a conversion learned in childhood and obeyed in adulthood. It is not a conversion that happens in one moment’s time. It is a series of revolutions, of constant conversions, of adaptations, of enlightenment through new knowledge. There is no end goal with philosophy, only more questions. Through this, a web of learning and therefore analysis can be acquired. Seneca also said “If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable” (Letters to Lucilius, Letter LXXI, 3) 

 The Stoics understood the nature and importance of context. The spiritual life is the life of that particular individual and one must assess the present situation to make decisions on how one will respond to that situation or act upon new knowledge.  The more knowledge is present, the better the judgment or use of that knowledge can be. This can be used most effectively to create inner pleasure or peace and avoid inner strife or pain, although the reality may not appear widely or objectively pleasurable. 

The Stoics related the spiritual life to that of how an individual responds to good fortune. As much as they preached happiness in the moment of crisis, they also knew that wealth is a destructive force in the spiritual life. Seneca stated, “It is not the man who has too little but the man who craves more, that is poor” (Letters to Lucilius, Letter II, 6). This alludes to the hunger for more material items in order to feed happiness. The spiritual life includes a detachment from the constant seeking of the materials of pleasure. The Stoics are actually making a distinction between what is pleasurable and what constitutes happiness. Instead of falling in love with our wealth and status, the strength of our mind is what should be valued. Wealth is an empty dream of comfort and indulgence, and the feeling that one could always acquire more. Such wealth will in fact not bring an end to strain and stress but will actually facilitate more of it. This is why wealth should not be valued as important in the spiritual life and why wealth will corrode the mind of the spiritual person, changing ones value systems and undoubtedly ones actions. 

Another core principle of the spiritual life for the Stoic is realizing that we cannot control everything around us. We can only control our mind, our actions, our judgments and ourselves. This takes a significant amount of practice, as it is quite natural to be affected by the happenings of the outside world. Particularly, the Stoics thoughts on death can be helpful to understand the ultimate lack of control, that is, the moment of imminent death. Epictetus stated, “In a word, neither death, nor exile, nor pain, nor anything of this kind is the real cause of our doing or not doing any action, but our inward opinions and principles” (Discourses, Chap XI). With this as the model, we must move within the uncertain world with only certainty in ourselves and our commitment to what we believe. We must practice our principles in action by exercising them as often as life permits. Epictetus said, “Every habit and faculty is preserved and increased by correspondent actions, - as the habit of walking, by walking; of running, by running” (Discourses, XVIII). As much as we can speak about our principles, it is of the most utter importance that we practice them when the time comes that our principles are challenged, and we must be unwavering in our commitment to them. “Shall I show you the muscular training of a philosopher? … A will undisappointed; evils avoided; powers daily exercised; careful resolutions; unerring decisions” (Wherein consists the Essence of Good, VIII) said Epictetus. Doing these mind work outs will help us to strengthen our intellect so that in the face of adversity, we can weather the mental storm well and live in a healthy state of mind.

Philosophy does awaken the mind to an understanding of itself. The mind must participate in training to carry out the principles it ponders and thinks about. Particularly, our harness on our mind can help us deal with unpleasant situations, especially those situations that are well out of our control. We must at times understand our powerlessness to change the situation around us and instead convert our mind space into a place to harbor positive thoughts and hopeful will.