Philosophy Now Forum

Take the Stoics. The story goes that their founder, Zeno of Citium, when shipwrecked off the Athenian coast made his way into the city, and headed for a bookshop. There he discovered a copy of Xenophon’s memoir of Socrates, in which Socrates explains that although an education might teach you many things, it typically fails when it comes to matters that would be extraordinarily useful, such as how to get a good night’s sleep. A training in how to contain the petty frustrations of everyday life would be enormously beneficial, Socrates observes. Zeno agreed, and immediately set to forging the Stoical way of life. It was said that Zeno so mastered his control of the passions, an ability the Stoics much admired, that he died by holding his breath. That’s impossible, a scientist might object. That’s not the point, an ancient philosopher might retort: it’s a story to demonstrate the transformative power of the Stoic art of life.

Alongside the atomic theory of nature he advocated, Epicurus was remembered for the life he led too. “His goodness was proved in all ways,” wrote Diogenes Laertius, the chronicler of the third century CE, who, when he decided to write about philosophy, thought it quite natural to do so by gathering the personal myths in his Lives of Eminent Philosophers. Epicurus was said there to be as happy as Zeus, who feasted in splendour on Mount Olympus, when all he had to sup on was water and barley cakes. He died in agony, apparently of kidney stones, and yet throughout his illness he remained cheerful. In witness to this striking equanimity, his last letter to Hermarchus was preserved. “On the happiest, and the last day of my life: I am suffering from diseases of the bladder and intestines, which are of the utmost possible severity,” Epicurus wrote. “Yet all my sufferings are counterbalanced by the contentment of soul which I derive from remembering our reasonings and discoveries.”

pilgrim1917 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 09, 2020 1:22 am Thank you, Mark Vernon. "Saint Socrates" was very enjoyable and stimulating and I highly recommend it. I want to leave a comment about this quote from it below.

“I consider the lives and fortunes of the great teachers of mankind no less carefully than their ideas and doctrines,” opined Michel de Montaigne in the sixteenth century.

I think Montaigne NAILED IT here, because the lives of Jesus, Buddha and Socrates were their teachings. Life before words, as Mark Vernon pointed out so well. For the Great Teachers, Jesus, Buddha and Socrates, walking and talking were synonymous with teaching; they didn't leave any writings behind which they wrote themselves, but their followers did, fortunately for us. They must have wanted us to study their LIVES as much as their WORDS. So it is for their followers, especially Jesus' followers today. Jesus of course taught us, "I am the vine, you are the branches. Remain in me." So, if Jesus wanted to write books, he would have, but he didn't. So, using myself, a Christian, as an example: as his follower, I believe that writing books is secondary to living the "Jesus Way," which includes loving others, sacrificing myself and putting God first. I might publish thousands of pages of words, but that wouldn't make me a good disciple. Writing, however, does figure very importantly in the Resurrection. I totally believe that Jesus ROSE from the dead and lives today. I'm looking forward to celebrating EASTER in April along with the rest of the world. CHEERS!