Could Caring Hurt Your Soul? What Does That Mean, Anyway?
In some quarters, the recent popularity of Stoicism is likened to the return of trends one would have thought (and perhaps hoped) were over, like bell-bottom jeans, or making one’s own jam. At least, this is the opinion of one Justine Toh, a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity. Toh wrote a piece for “Eternity News” in which she weighs the relative merits of Stoicism and Christianity, abundantly citing yours truly. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Stoicism doesn’t come out too well in the confrontation. Equally unsurprisingly, I’d like to take the opportunity to correct some of Toh’s misunderstandings, in the spirit of vigorous open dialogue with other philosophies that has characterized Stoicism since its very inception.
Right at the onset Toh seems to be making the usual confusion between Stoicism (the philosophy) and stoicism (the stiff upper lip attitude), a difference explained very well by Don Robertson in this essay. Suffices to say that — contra Toh — Stoics are not “the kind of person who kills everyone’s buzz by having no buzz at all.”
Toh then goes straight after yours truly: “Plenty are drawn to the practical advice Stoicism offers for life in our turbulent world today. Among them are those looking to this ancient philosophy as a replacement for religion — such as philosopher Massimo Pigliucci.”
