“Keep a list before your mind of those who burned with anger and resentment about something, or even the most renowned for success, misfortune, evil deeds, or any special distinction. Then ask yourself, how did that work out? Smoke and dust, the stuff of simple myth trying to be legend . . .”
– Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 12.27
If one takes up the study of philosophy, particularly philosophy as a whole, rather than any particular idea, one realizes that many philosophies are almost entirely academic. In fact, academics dedicate entire fields of philosophy to questions and problems which, while fascinating and important, have no true bearing on how we should live our lives. Answering questions like “What is beauty?” and “How do we know we exist?” are important, but only from an academic standpoint. I am tempted to say what most people say to Philosophy… Who cares? It should be… “Does this make me Happy?”
Why learn about it, then? Why should we care? I can’t speak for all philosophy, but I know that the Stoics were no interested in knowledge for knowledge’s sake, but instead, they wanted to know how best to live. All else, to them, was superfluous. A stoic seeks to know how best to live, and ideally, finds the answer in the core ideas of stoicism.
Stoicism is not a religion, nor is it a particularly dogmatic set of rules. Rather it tells us the most logical, and simple way for us to achieve Ataraxia (tranquility). Stoicism is an operating system, but at the end of the day, we are the users and we decide what works best for us. We need not be beholden to every last word written by Seneca, but rather understand that he is merely illustrating a method to achieve peace not prescribing the law for our life. There are no commandments in Stoicism other than the pursuit of virtue.
That said, there may not be hard and fast laws in Stoicism, but it is easy to see the benefits of incorporating some of the philosophy into your life. We all know people who fly off the handle at nothing, or who allow stress or fear to rule their lives. Do they seem any happier? Does it seem to make things better for them? Even if they do meet with success, there was an unnecessary cost attached to that success. It is a cost I no longer want to pay. Especially knowing that we can have the same amount of success and perform at the same level (likely even better) without that much stress.
By knowing what we can and can’t control, by loving fate, by knowing that our perceptions are not fact, and by filling our lives with mindfulness and gratitude, we can live effective lives. Effective and, crucially, happy lives.