© 1996 Suzanne Kelly
© 1996 International Urantia Association (IUA)
| Marriage, Parenting and Their Products | Journal — September 1996 — Index | Freely You Have Received, Freely Give |
Suzanne Kelly, Texas
If the political and social problems of today were approached through the belief system of ancient Stoicism, we might have achieved political morality and be somewhat socially content. In Stoicism is found the universe of God and God according to the Stoic is reason, “men and God are united.” This is the undeniable seed of unity—unity is the progenitor of social peace. Stoics in their attempt at unity not only attacked tribalism and chauvinism, but they pleaded for equality of slaves and women. We are still, 2000 years later, working on equality.
True Stoicism looked at a world-state and eliminated the many states. It had one system of law based on universal reason rather than on custom and convention. Stoicism’s single belief that there are no naturally inferior people would catapult us into a new age of compassion and cross cultural understanding.
However, the solving of our modern day problems lies not in any one philosophical viewpoint, but in the action of parts of them all, actually applying those ideas and ideals in the bureaucracy of our daily life. However getting politicians to live the idealistic life of philosophers and utilizing their theories is wishful thinking.
If we take the philosophical understanding of Stoicism, which was the superior philosophy of the better classes around the time of the birth of Christ, this is what we find: The Stoics believed that in nature there was a controlling Reason-Fate that dominated. They taught that the soul of man was divine, that it was incarcerated in the body of physical nature which was evil. By living in harmony with nature, with God, man’s soul achieved liberty; thus virtue came to be its own reward. Stoicism ascended to a sublime morality, ideals never since transcended by any human system of philosophy.
While the Stoics professd to be the offspring of God, they failed to know him as the pattern for all Personality, and therefore failed to find him. Stoicism remained a philosophy; it never became a religion. Its followers sought to attune their minds to the harmony of the Universal Mind, but they failed to envisage themselves as the children of a loving Father. Paul leaned heavily toward the aspirational stance of Stoicism when he wrote: “I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”
Unfortunately, a semi-contented state of resisted endeavor seems to permeate the underlying attitude of most of the elected political parties. They are content with their ideas and their refusal to listen and combine adversarial theory in the execution of multiple solutions.
Stoics in their attempt at unity not only attacked tribalism and chauvinism but they pleaded for equality of slaves and women.
It is futile to try to change/regulate individual morality; regardless of influence, it is still personal choice. A choice easily selected when those individuals are the law makers/regulators who dismiss the non-aristocratic populous and choose self perpetuation. The change most politicians seek is the change that ensures their personal future comfort. The morals and values of a successful and peaceful society must be taught and reflected in its leaders, elected representatives and teachers. How can the youth of today learn what is best for all if those in authority do only what is best for themselves at the time, and pay no heed to the whole of mankind. If only Stoicism could be realized today, there would be no delineation between individual and community. There would be universal citizenship, and one system of law-laws that applied to everyone—NO exceptions.
Stoicism would decisively help us in our quest for world peace; it would also invigorate America in its rejuvenation of the natural law of fraternity. The freedom of life has usurped moral responsibility. In the United States today we tend to ignore morality, values and virtue, and replace them with “RIGHTS”—our right to do unto every one else before they do unto us. When did this happen?
It happened somewhere between life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It can only end when man realizes we really are all equal. Some of us just have more than others, materially and intellectually. The majority of those who don’t have (while cursing the free enterprise that will eventually help them) won’t be happy until they have as much. Although this is reality, in Stoicism it’s contented reality. The word Utopia keeps coming back into the picture here, but that assemblage of unity is not impossible, it’s just hidden behind politics and religion.
Stoicism would partially eliminate the gap between politics and religion by appealing to individuals to live in accordance with nature. That is the working toward the harmony and orderliness of nature itself. It should be obvious then that nature and man are not opposites; both take part in reason and harmony which are both more important than any accidental differences in station. Stoicism professes that the “true self” is not our flesh and blood, but the faculties we employ in reasoning. It is that part which shares in what gives life and purpose to the world as a whole. A true Stoic is one who endures and endeavors to be true to himself. He surmounts adverse circumstances and struggles ceaselessly to find the truth.
A person who has order in his mind has no problem acting and feeling responsible without blaming others for himself or for whatever happens to him. To quote Epictetus: “To accuse others for one’s own misfortunes is a sign of want of education; to accuse oneself shows that one’s education has begun; to accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one’s education is complete.” Here again is stressed the importance of education; it is inescapable.
The basis of Stoic thought was that knowledge is attainable.
The Stoic system of thinking has three main sections in which the nucleus of thought can be divided. They are logic, physics and ethics. Logic includes the theory of knowledge and the study of language, as well as logic in the narrower sense - the study of argument and dialectic. Physics includes natural sciences, theology and metaphysics. Ethics, the pursuit of the good life, is the highest aim. The relationship between the three branches of the system was illustrated by the Stoics with the use of metaphor. Logic was compared to a wall, physics to the trees protected by the wall, ethics to the fruit borne by the trees. Alternately, the philosophy as a whole was compared to a body of which the bones and muscles were logic, the flesh and blood physics, and the soul ethics.
The basis of Stoic thought was that knowledge is attainable. They believed the evidences of the senses and evolved an elaborate explanation of the mode by which the senses and the mind acquire knowledge. It seems now a curiously confused mixture of physiology, psychology and philosophy.
We in this modern day would do better if we understood the Stoic assumption that all parts of the universe are bound in a mysterious unity, which make up the indivisible—whole, that God in a sense is the soul of the universe. Even though this may lean toward materialism and pantheism, this representation is not a true reflection. Stoics were not materialists in the modern sense, although they believed that everything was made of the same ultimate stuff; and although their God was not separate from the world, their conception of him is nevertheless different from that of the pantheist; the Stoics taught God is a person.
A person who has order in his mind has no problem acting and feeling responsible without blaming others for himself or for whatever happens to him.
If we would but accept the central concept of the Stoic teaching, i.e. “rational principle” — logos — which, they believed, animated the universe we would align with the aim of the Stoic, to “live in harmony with nature,” which is difficult to explain because the Greek “nature” translates differently than the English “nature.” To the Greek, true nature was guided and formed by the logos. This was also identified with fate, or divine providence. They believed (with a contradiction which not surprisingly could never be resolved with success) both in predestination and in free will. I will offer a personal observation to attempt a further clarification of this paradigm. It can be somewhat explained by realizing that, just as man must conceive in his mind an object that he is to create or an idea he will accomplish before it can be created; the microcosm of predestination is held in the fact that God conceived ALL before it could be created. In order for God to escape the fetters of perfection and personality absolutism, divestiture was inescapable; and experience through divestiture is found only in free will personality. Therefore, even though God witnessed all before it could be, free will remains the pilot of personal destiny and the basis for the existential nature of God.
To relate further on this personal assumption of free will, man’s desire for immortality may be evidence of man’s capacity for it. If there is an appetite for life everlasting, the chances are that the appetite will not go unsatisfied. Unfortunately the “recorded” Stoic thought stopped speculating before they came to these conclusions.
In summary, the philosophy of Stoicism might be desirable in this day and age especially in the areas of politics and personal duty. For the Stoic the sole good in human life is virtue, the acquisition of which depends on the individual free will. If a man acquires virtue and lives in harmony with nature, he is thereby freed from spiritual dependence on material factors. In Stoicism the desire for material things comes only from false judgement, which can be overcome by knowledge. The pursuit of virtue is an end in itself. Nothing else matters to the Stoic. Because they felt that all emotions should be avoided, it made their doctrine seem cold and brittle. But the Stoic was a firm believer in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. This universalism gives it a more exalted note than the at first sight of narrow insistence on being virtuous. It is this embryo of Stoic philosophy reflected in the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God that will inevitably redeem mankind and begin to solve his social and political problems.
| Marriage, Parenting and Their Products | Journal — September 1996 — Index | Freely You Have Received, Freely Give |