Brigitte sent me a link to an article, titled “The rise of
modern Stoicism” by Joe Gelonesi. It is part of The Philosopher’s Zone here.
The subject has been in the air around here for a while now—ever since Brigitte
bought Martha C. Nussbaum’s The Therapy
of Desire back in the Spring of 2013 and then we both read and discussed it
over a period of months, with particular focus on the Stoics. The book is
subtitled Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics.
The strong impression I carried away from that experience,
particularly from the study of late Roman Stoicism, is how the decaying Roman
civilization embraced that philosophy, how widely it spread, and how it laid
the foundation for the very smooth acceptance of Catholic Christianity in those
realms. Christianity gave that rational, if also transcendental, philosophy a
genuine life. The subject is worth
pursuing as an antidote to the chaos that now seems to be spreading almost
virally.
When things go too far, the answer is almost always already
present. Thus, while selfie sticks rise into the air, the (call it) re-moralization
of society is also taking place. Concerning that last phrase, it occured
naturally: we both also read a book, around about the same time, titled The De-Moralization of Society, From
Victorian Virtues to Modern Values, by Gertrude Himmelfarb.
Lifts the mood on a gloomy if warmer November day dark with
a low pressure system and half-hearted rain.
