No.435
I'm in a similar boat, even though I only have a very surface understanding of stoicism it can help me immensely.
For example I've always worried about how others perceive me, like when somebody says anything about me in a slightly negative manner I can't stop thinking about that for days. Or how unfair the cards I got dealt in my life are compared to others etc.
What I get from that philosophy most of all is becoming better at being mindful of my emotions by not getting overwhelmed by sadness/anger I usually keep dwelling in. I have to constantly recall the advice and recognize the situation for it to help though, because I am lazy and basically picked a few pieces of advice that suited me best and rolled with it.
What I can't quite get into is that many of those teachings were apparantly popular and taught by the upper crust elite, who talked about their struggles while probably owning a few slaves, which compared to the general populace of that time seems a bit pretentious. But as I said, I don't know nearly enough about stoicism, or even about history in general to be honest, I just think if some words help me work on myself then that's a good thing.
Most of all, I try to stay away from philosphy because a lot of writings usally come off as too pessimistic for my taste, which doesn't seem to be the case for stoicism, or at least the parts I read about.
No.448
>>435Depends. Diogenes the Cynic, a forerunner to Stoicism, lived in a barrel and eventually got captured and sold as a slave. (admittedly, the barrel was by choice. Diogenes was a weirdo) Other founders also had terrible things happen to them.
"To live is to suffer" is the basis of a lot of philosophy because it's true. The rest is just how you deal with it.
No.453
The reason why I don't care about most philosophy is that it's generally only a bitter attitude to life trying to be sold as truth.
I also don't think that kind of discussion belongs here, but that's just my opinion
No.457
>>453You're not the only one who feels that way here.
