Stoicism, an ancient school of thought originating with Zeno of Citium (334-262 BC), is experiencing a resurgence. Several thriving and robust Stoic communities exist outside of academia, and Stoic quotes and sayings abound on social media. Yet, in terms of popular culture, some of the information shared about Stoicism is misguided or downright inaccurate. For example, one inaccurate perception portrays Stoicism as primarily for men, leading to the moniker “Broicism.”
I wanted to provide all interested students, including female ones, with a more accurate and robust understanding of this increasingly popular school of thought. So, in 2019, I developed this class. Since the class is designed for senior Philosophy majors, it has special requirements such as student-facilitated discussions and a research paper.
The class is taught online over a 7.5-week period. As such, the syllabus, shared below, differs from those of face-to-face classes that plot out the entire semester of readings. In my class, the required readings, the weekly learning objectives, the instructions for the specific assignments, and the assessments themselves have their own designated areas in the course shell, and students are expected to work through the weekly materials in sequential order.
Inspired by the teachings of Epictetus, I designed this class to address both theory and practice. Thus, my class attempts to address two interrelated goals. The first goal is to provide students with a general and accurate theoretical overview of the Stoic system: logic, physics, and ethics. Many of the ancient Stoics saw their tripartite system as interdependent, and common analogies such as the egg or the animal were used to emphasize this point. While no part took priority, Zeno taught the subjects in the order of logic, physics, and ethics, which I follow in my class. I focus on the major concepts and theories within each area, and as the class progresses, I build on their interrelatedness. In covering the three main subjects, I draw from extant texts from Cleanthes, Epictetus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, and others.
Its second aim is to provide students with an opportunity to explore what it means to practice Stoicism. For Stoics like Epictetus and Cato the Younger, philosophy was not only a subject of study but also a way of life. Its overarching aim was to help its practitioners cultivate virtue, along with an inner equanimity, even amidst political and personal turmoil. When philosophy becomes a way of life, its core principles and practices are integrated into all aspects of our daily lives: our routines, decision-making, relationships, and so forth. Philosophy, thereby, becomes a lived practice designed to move us toward wisdom and the Delphic maxim: Know thyself. To fully engage with this practical dimension, students are encouraged to practice different Stoic techniques and journal about these experiences.
The practice component, I believe, is what, in part, makes my course unique, so I want to discuss the journal activities a bit more. I use an outside tool called Yellowdig for the journal – not to make it distinct from the actual theoretical concepts we discussed in the class – but to demarcate it as a form of low-stakes practice. Points are earned solely on their self-reporting and their shared interactions with their peers. In other words, points accumulate automatically via their posts and interactions, so there is no one “judging” them on how their practice is going.
The actual practice portion takes place over 5 weeks, and each week for 5 days, they are encouraged to practice a specific Stoic technique. Empirical research shows that for intentional activities such as journaling to be effective, they have to be practiced for longer than a week. I understand that. Yet, I also think it is important to try a variety of techniques to get an actual taste of Stoic practices and to find some combination that may work for each student going forward.
The goal of the journaling activities is straightforward: to develop a better understanding of Stoicism by applying Stoic practices to their own lives and to experiment with whether they work to enhance our well-being and move us closer to the good life, as the Stoics believed. Throughout the practice portion, I strongly encourage my students not to look at this as a frivolous or extraneous activity, so I remind them weekly that theory and practice, like the Stoic tripartite system itself, are intertwined, interdependent elements.
Here are more details about the five journal activities that my class includes:
- In Week 1 of the journal, students are prompted to practice negative visualization. Negative visualization is a broad concept that encompasses several different, but interrelated, techniques. Yet, as I see it, it primarily takes two forms. In the more modern form, we imagine the absence or loss of things that we value to engender more gratitude and appreciation. In the more traditional forum, referred to as premeditatio Malorum, we attempt to prepare ourselves well for future adversities including death, which is why the Stoics also practiced memento mori: remember you too will die. Premeditatio malorum is a method to build confidence and mental fortitude in the face of uncertainty, which I liken to a type of psychological immunization.
- In Week 2, they are urged to seek out voluntary discomfort. This can be done in a variety of ways from experiencing coldness or hunger, or abstaining from something enjoyable like social media. This is a Stoic practice likely originated from Cynicism, and many Stoics practiced it from Epictetus, who was known for his frugality, to Cato the Younger, who was known to go around town barefoot in dark robes – rather than shod and wearing a purple one more befitting of his political position. While the Stoic justification for such practices is independent of their effects, modern scientific research, such as that by Jean Twenge, also supports such abstemious activities such as digital detoxes as a way to boost happiness.
- Following in the footsteps of Seneca, in Week 3, they are urged to engage in a type of self-review or self-examination at the end of the day. Michel Foucault likened this practice to a type of pre-Christian confessional where the practitioner not only acts as a confessor but also as a judge and jury. The point, however, is not to punish oneself or even to feel guilty. It is to learn from mistakes and to internalize certain rules and behaviors so they become more habitual.
- In Week 4, as we cover Epictetus’s teachings including his dichotomy of control, they are encouraged to focus on character, which is something “up to us,” and so they are prompted to eliminate common yet pervasive non-Stoical habits such as complaining, whining, and blaming.
- For the last journal entry, students are given a choice. First, the standard choice is to cultivate indifference to externals from preferred indifferents like praise and health to dispreferred indifferents like criticism and exile. They are urged to do this by employing “the view from above,” which is taken from Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations. This practice involves taking a mental step back and envisioning oneself from a higher, more detached vantage point. This cognitive exercise allows us to see the bigger picture and ourselves as a small part of a larger whole. As a result, often the things that initially bother us such as rude co-worker or even perhaps getting stuck in a traffic jam tend to lose their power over us. The second option is ultimately up to the student. They can choose any technique that we haven’t yet explored, but that is grounded in Stoicism. If they make this choice, they need not only to practice it but also fully explain the technique to others along with providing justification drawing from primary sources.
Overall, this is one of my favorite classes to teach. In the last iteration, I received this comment from a student: “I feel it brought tranquility back into my life once more and added depth to Stoicism that I had not understood before.” When I receive such unsolicited, positive feedback, I am affirmed that it’s accomplishing my intended purpose.
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Sandra Woien
Sandra Woien is an Associate Teaching Professor at Arizona State University. She currently teaches a variety of courses dealing with ancient philosophy, well-being, and applied ethics. Her research interests coalesce around the concept of well-being and how to distill insights from ancient philosophy that are still applicable to human flourishing.
