Stoicism

The Stoic philosophy, developed from the Cynics, provided a perfectly unified account of the world that combined formal logic, materialistic physics, and naturalistic ethics. Stoicism supports the idea of living in harmony with a natural world instead of one where an individual has no direct control. This is where the “Tri-Control” theory arises. There are three types of control: no control, partial control, and full control. Stoics argues that an individual must let go of the “no control”…

1) To dive into the puzzle of the Sea Battle we must first discuss the Principle of Bivalence. The Principle of Bivalence can be summarized as follows: for any well-formed proposition, the truth value of that statement must be either true or false. The truth value of the proposition cannot be both (a contradiction), nor neither (a gap). And when looking at the puzzle of the Sea Battle it is of special importance to us to keep in mind that a proposition cannot be neither true nor false, for like…

In Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations, Cicero states how virtue is sufficient for happiness; this idea is especially present in book five of Tusculan Disputations. This belief that virtue is necessary for happiness aligns with the Stoics view on happiness, and the two arguments about the qualifications and self-control needed to live a happy life. These qualifications and self-control are only attainable through virtue, deducing that without virtue, a happy life is not possible. According to Cicero…

Seneca was a famous Roman Stoic philosopher from Spain who was fascinated with anger and wanted to do something about it. During his time in ancient Rome, anger was an enormous source of feelings and actions that he recognized the dangers and consequences that came along with it. What Seneca wanted to do was uncover a way to solve and relieve people from his or her anger. To Solve this problem Seneca had a few philosophies to follow by, for example, people who get furious at the world is because…

In Montaigne’s essay An Apology for Raymond Sebond, he defends the work and philosophy of Sebond, which he defines as a “bold and courageous” defense of the Christian religion using natural, human reason, meant to counter atheists (Montaigne 491). Objections arose to this work, and the one Montaigne approaches more thoroughly is that Sebond is wrong overall in his defense of faith, and that faith is not necessary in the acquisition of knowledge about worldly matters (Montaigne 500-501). This…

Cartman pretending to be Christian because he wanted to have a platinum album and become rich was extremely unethical. He became greedy so he found an easy way out. He wanted money and did not care what genre of music he played. He used the Christian hard rock following to his advantage because he lied to them by telling them his lyrics came from his heart. He also used them in order to get them to buy his CDs and listen to his music because he lied to them. It was immoral because he used their…

The article “100 Things I Learned in 10 Years and 100 Reads of Marcus Aurelius ‘Meditations’” was written by Ryan Holiday. It was printed in the October 24, 2016 edition of Observer and can be found on http://observer.com/2016/10/100-things-i-learned-in-10-years-and-100-reads-of-marcus-aureliuss-meditations/. The article seeks to demonstrate the contemporary relevance of the personal meditations written by Marcus Aurelius. This series of private notes written by the emperor for his own…

Five years ago me and my family had just PCS’d to Fort Hood TX. I was 16 years in with 4 deployments under my belt and motivated to dive in to my next assignment, continuing to do my part in the ongoing “War on Terror”. I was apprehensive when I found out I was to be assigned to a Military Intelligence unit and even more so when I was assigned to a BN Staff position. I couldn't believe it. I tried my best to fit in but the pace of work and the attitudes I encountered infuriated as well as…

Cynicism Introduction: Who are the Cynics? The word “cynic” derives from Ancient Greek meaning “dog-like” or “dog”. The philosophy group of Cynics’ beliefs and actions resembles what a dog would think or do, because they live an indifferent way of life. Another way to put this is that the cynics sustained their human behaviour by the motivation entirely of self-interest. An example would be Diogenes of Sinope, who was a dominant figure of the story of Cynicism as there are many stories about his…

Stoics don’t see philosophy in the way we see it today. They see it as a way of life, but for them philosophy is not about the past or even about knowledge it is a way of life. They define philosophy as a kind of practice or exercise concerning what is beneficial. What can make life better? How can it become better? Once we come to know the value of the world and nature we transforms, a sort of self-transformation. The Stoics have God is a corporeal Entity. The one who created it all and to the…