You can distinguish between a personal standard you set for yourself (or believe appropriate for yourself and other Stoics or Pagans or whatever) and what is...
Jan: The example of false promises is clear. I would not want to live in a world in which no one kept their promises nor would anyone who thought about it....
... I think there may be a confusion here about "universality". We must distinguish: 1) Principles that I believe everyone should follow. 2) Principles that I...
Grant: The whole problem seems to revolve around your category 4: principles, which are not ethical principles and which are not universal, but which I...
Hello Malcolm, ... such things as having a Lares, and including it in you meals, and other life events, etc?<<< In reply to this specific question about Lares,...
... Keith this is perhaps the best precis of pagan spirituality that I have so far encountered. Thank you for taking the time to write it. Greg Geis...
Hello Stoics, ... Yes, very good. This is also how I look at things. Asserting that some precepts hold for OTHER people than myself I find problematic, in the...
... I guess I don't understand in what sense these are _ethical_ codes. If they're ethical codes, then you don't merely choose to follow them, you _ought_ to...
... Are we talking about what ethical precepts I believe do in fact hold for other people, or what precepts I should explicitly tell other people apply to...
Mr Sterling, It's very clear that we have strongly different views on this question. I'll attempt to address below only the things that go beyond merely...
Grant: Let's take Sartre's example of the young student who comes to him and asks whether it is better to stay home to care for his sick mother or to join...
... Interestingly, when I was doing research to round out my web-story "Roman Trek," I found some information about one of the early Stoic teachers who headed...
For information on this, see David Sedley, "The School, from Zeno to Arius Didymus," in Brad Inwood, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Stoics. (Cambridge...
... My view is certainly that either: 1) It was best, all things considered, for him to care for his Mom, or 2) It was best for him to join the Resistance, or ...
Grant: Sartre did believe that each person creates or is responsible for his own moral code. He doesn't elaborate much about the questions that you bring...
... One can always choose arbitrarily to adopt a set of rules for oneself. I can choose to adopt the rule "never wear green shirts", or "always leave a house...
If you fancy some really dumbed down Stoicism, theres a piece by me in the new issue of Psychologies (for those of you in the UK) on Stoicism as therapy. it...
... I think that limiting oneself to any one philosophy is a mistake: life is complex; philosophies are simple. (Even Heidegger is simple compared to life.) ...
... oneself ... life ... Hello. I am new to this list and Stoicism, and by no means a scholar, so forgive the simplicity of my response (and be gentle with...
... If 'limiting oneself to Stoicism' meant that I had to accept the ideas of the ancient Stoics on ethics, logic, Physics (and metaphysics), etc., and no...
Hi all, ... Very very good. Thanks for this. ... Well, I agree with you. I'm new to Stoicism too (having really 1st had a good lok at it only a few months...
Hello Malcolm, (Just catching up on some I left behind.) ... each individual's life) is permeated be the fire of Zeus, then the person's life must be...
... As you know, I am deeply skeptical about all those things when construed as ethical issues. I do not think there are natural rights, and unlike Jan I...
... Again, I wish someone would give examples of this. Of course some elements of ancient Physics have been overturned by modern scientific views, but I...
A few years ago, I was of the opinion that classical Stoicism might be reconstructed so as to include the contemporary notion of human rights. While...
... Well, I would go a little farther and claim that promoting such laws is, generally, required by the Stoic commitment to Justice. But I agree completely, ...
Jan writes: _______________ If it is possible to engage in appropriate action (without passion, and therefore without compassion) in such a way as to treat...
Keith wrote: But then, not only is everything good (for as long as it endures), so too are the processes by which everything comes into being, grows and...
Steve writes: I agree with Grant on this issue. We are all restating positions we already hold. It doesn't appear Martha Nussbaum's book has changed that. ...
